We have heard all about the Tuckerton Road. How about the Manahawkin Road?
A few years ago I started a thread about all the roads that no longer reach their namesake. For example, Oak Shade Road in Tabernacle no longer makes it to the old village of Oak Shade which once existed along route 206.
Also in Tabernacle, there is a street called Hawkin Road (or Hawkins Road depending on which side of 206 that you are on). It starts at Skeet Road in Medford and makes a virtual beeline to Tabernacle. Most folks (even the old-timers) assumed that the road was named for a person. However, while researching some old cranberry bog properties in the area I found a deed with the following legal description:
Beginning at a monument at the intersection of the center of the Manahawkin Road and the road leading from Moore’s corner to Flyatt.
This is the current intersection of Hawkin Road and Old Indian Mills Road. Moore’s corner was associated with Hosea Moore’s tavern at Foxchase which is now the home to Seneca High School.
Another:
Beginning at a stone in the southeasterly edge of the private road leading from the Medford and Manahawkin Road to the late Samuel H. Williams.
This was very near the intersection of Hawkin and Skeet Roads in Medford.
Returns for this road exist and confirm that Hawkin Road was indeed named for a destination and not a person.
Maurice Horner in his History of Evesham Township says that there were two main Indian trails that crossed in Marlton. One of them, the Manahawkin trail, went from Cooper’s Point through Marlton to Barnegat Bay. This Manahawkin trail, he claims, became Main Street in Marlton (gee, I thought it had a different name). I am inclined to believe that part of the Old Marlton Pike was along this old Indian trail as well. I have not yet been able to determine its route beyond Tabernacle, though I do have a few clues.
So next time you are in the pines on the old Tuckerton Road, remember that it had a lesser known (and surely lesser traveled) cousin. Anyway, I thought it was interesting.
Rich
A few years ago I started a thread about all the roads that no longer reach their namesake. For example, Oak Shade Road in Tabernacle no longer makes it to the old village of Oak Shade which once existed along route 206.
Also in Tabernacle, there is a street called Hawkin Road (or Hawkins Road depending on which side of 206 that you are on). It starts at Skeet Road in Medford and makes a virtual beeline to Tabernacle. Most folks (even the old-timers) assumed that the road was named for a person. However, while researching some old cranberry bog properties in the area I found a deed with the following legal description:
Beginning at a monument at the intersection of the center of the Manahawkin Road and the road leading from Moore’s corner to Flyatt.
This is the current intersection of Hawkin Road and Old Indian Mills Road. Moore’s corner was associated with Hosea Moore’s tavern at Foxchase which is now the home to Seneca High School.
Another:
Beginning at a stone in the southeasterly edge of the private road leading from the Medford and Manahawkin Road to the late Samuel H. Williams.
This was very near the intersection of Hawkin and Skeet Roads in Medford.
Returns for this road exist and confirm that Hawkin Road was indeed named for a destination and not a person.
Maurice Horner in his History of Evesham Township says that there were two main Indian trails that crossed in Marlton. One of them, the Manahawkin trail, went from Cooper’s Point through Marlton to Barnegat Bay. This Manahawkin trail, he claims, became Main Street in Marlton (gee, I thought it had a different name). I am inclined to believe that part of the Old Marlton Pike was along this old Indian trail as well. I have not yet been able to determine its route beyond Tabernacle, though I do have a few clues.
So next time you are in the pines on the old Tuckerton Road, remember that it had a lesser known (and surely lesser traveled) cousin. Anyway, I thought it was interesting.
Rich
