USGS Finds, Hanover Stone Finds, and a Cemetery Walk

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,656
8,267
All,

Today was a good day! Sit back and experience our morning.

A few weeks back I received an email from member "Tom" ( Tom Worrell) who is an ancestor of Richard Jones who owned the Hanover Furnace. In our correspondence I asked him if he would be interested in following the route of the property lines that I have discovered, along with seeing the stones. He agreed, and last Saturday we did just that.

I had been taking a break from searching for the Hanover stones mainly due to not finding any for quite some time; however, Tom's letter flamed my interest again and I set about trying to calculate where they should be. Sometimes it is good to take a break from something that you have been doing that is hitting a dead end.

As soon as I resumed looking over my records, I realized that I had been searching in slightly the wrong location. So after a week of reviewing I was confident that I was this time on the right track. Tom and I are planning to search in one area in the coming weeks, so I decided to try looking in a different area where I had looked before and came up empty.

We had a few other things to do first, so before 8 this morning we were heading to Lebanon Forest to search around. We drove as far as we could down a remote side road and then continued on foot. It was slightly swampy and it was obvious that a 4x4 was needed. I was mostly looking at my GPS while walking, and was soon surprised by what we encountered. In a remote spot deep in the woods the USGS has built a very large tower complete with all that is needed for weather and water monitoring and using solar energy to power it. There are wires leading into the ground which I presume are connected to underground wells nearby. All around the area for 100 yards there are test wells and tubes.

The first photo was taken laying on the ground with a water gage pipe in front of me.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1462-1/IMG_6469.JPG

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1454-1/IMG_6466.JPG

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1465-1/IMG_6470.JPG

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1459-1/IMG_6467.JPG

Our searching came up a failure so we headed off to search for the Hanover stones. The first location was only 100 feet away from where I had looked before, so I was uncertain if we would find anything. The location of the stone is described as this.

N2E (North 2° East) 125 chains (8250 feet) to small pine tree and stone

Arriving at the location we found it less than 30 feet from where my calculations put it.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1468-1/IMG_6473.JPG

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1471-1/IMG_6475.JPG


The next stone is described like this from the just found stones location.

N88W (North 88° West) 16.50 chains (1089 feet) to a stone along the Hanover Furnace Tract, it being in part the line of the Greenwood Forest Tract and in part the line of the Ferrago tract.

So off we headed to look. The woods there are much tougher, but we prevailed and it was all worth it. Again, less than 30 feet and we had found it. This one is quite remote and much larger.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1480-1/IMG_6482.JPG

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1477-1/IMG_6479.JPG

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1474-1/IMG_6478.JPG

Me

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1483-1/IMG_6487.JPG

We headed to lunch at WaWa and started home, but Jessica remembered that I had wanted to search for a grave that I had mentioned to her a while back. It is in the St. Andrews cemetery in Mt Holly.

We arrived and started walking around and Jessica found it in short order. He was a General in the Revolutionary war and owned the Ferrago Tract mentioned above. Can you guess :)

His original stone is the tall one, and they have placed a newer more easily read one behind it which you can also see in the first photo.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1492-1/IMG_6494.JPG

Notice the almost flaw in the text.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1489-1/IMG_6492.JPG

While walking around I found this stone which is quite interesting. Could this be the father of the Charles Wills grave on Eagle road??? The dates are viable.


http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/1486-1/IMG_6489.JPG

Guy
 

Tom

Explorer
Feb 10, 2004
231
9
Nice work Guy, and great pictures. I hope your luck holds for when we go out next time.

I have been very fortunate to have found this website (thanks Ben). So many members have given and helped me to find more information about my family than I ever thought possible.
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,656
8,267
Thank you all for your comments. I have had a dry spell for a while until now. It was invigorating. Jessica was laughing at me when we found them. She wants to get a video camera so she can tape me and laugh some more at me. Some daughter she is :D

Bob I don't believe so. I still think it was where we were at. However, these finds will now allow me to calculate the difference between magnetic north then, and true north now. This will make it easier to find some of the others I hope, and maybe I can be more certain that we were at the correct locations on the ones we looked for.

Tom... I am sure glad you found the site also. It was nice meeting you and I am sure it will happen again :)

Guy
 

Ben Ruset

Administrator
Site Administrator
Oct 12, 2004
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Monmouth County
www.benruset.com
Tom said:
Nice work Guy, and great pictures. I hope your luck holds for when we go out next time.

I have been very fortunate to have found this website (thanks Ben). So many members have given and helped me to find more information about my family than I ever thought possible.

You're welcome! I'm happy to be able to run the site and have people talk and learn about NJ History.
 
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