http://www.state.nj.us/pinelands/pastimes/ten/TAKETEN.PDF
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Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Places to Go Thanks to Bert Nixdorf
Just wanted to take a minute to send this link to an online book created by one of my local heroes Bert Nixdorf, who passed away recently. He was the founder of the Outdoor Club and wrote a couple of books, one on bike trails - very hard to find book (which I found at Murphy's Book Loft in Mullica Hill a few years ago).
http://www.state.nj.us/pinelands/pastimes/ten/TAKETEN.PDF
http://www.state.nj.us/pinelands/pastimes/ten/TAKETEN.PDF
Chair Yoga in Collingswood
It may seem a stretch to talk about chair yoga in a historic places blog, but I promise a historic place in this piece. First, however, increasingly as I push through my sixties, I notice physical impediments creeping up. I hike three miles a day with no problem and could do six with a break after three, but I did notice I was getting stiff. It was harder to sit on the ground Indian style and get back up. I had a knee injury some years back and the stress and strain on my alternate knee had made my knees hard to rely on for climbing, not usually a problem as I doubt very much I'll be climbing the falls at Jim Thorpe again.
Nonetheless, I wanted to stay more flexible but I had put my gym membership on hold because I was having trouble getting up and down off the floor (the knees) and worried that repetitive stress from the machines would cause problems with other joints like my shoulders.
Sometimes I feel as though my wishes (admittedly mostly modest and unselfish ones) come true.
A class has opened up at the Collingswood Community Center on Tuesday at 11:15 for Chair Yoga. The teacher, Scott, is exceptional, I took a few of his classes when I had my gym membership at Royal Fitness in Barrington, though he is officially connected with Yogawood, also in Collingswood.
This yoga is easy on the joints but helps you stretch out and strengthen without stress. I can also have back problems if I'm not careful, which I discovered when I ruptured a disc taking a kayak off an SUV also some years back. I strongly recommend this class to anyone who wants to stay flexible and maintain motion without threat of injury. It is a small class of 4 people and the teacher and it is low key and relaxing. I feel wonderful when I leave at the end of that hour. (It is only $5 for the hour.)
Also in Collingswood, you can drive by the Knights Collings House on Collings Lane, built in 1825. Their last event was June 8th when they hosted the Parents who have written an Acadia book on Gloucester City. The Knights Collings House is always looking for volunteers for a variety of helpful tasks, gardening, tours, some office work. I believe a fiber group meets there as well. In the autumn, they have a great Edgar Allen Poe theater event which I've attended a couple of times.
Whenever I visit a nearby town, I always pick up their local newspapers and brochures. What's On - Collingswood, is very informative. I get it at the Communicty Center which is right next to the speedline and the fire-house on Collings Ave, center of town, and open to the public. Stop in and find out what's going on in Collingwood, a superb small town. Also, don't forget their excellent Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings, for fresh local produce, music, breakfast or lunch, flowers, and a colorful relaxing morning event.
Well, Trixie and I are off to Big Timber Creek now, hope to see you on the trail or at the Chair Yoga class = Tuesday 11:15 at the Communicty Center in Collingswood.
Jo Ann wrightj45@yaho.com
Nonetheless, I wanted to stay more flexible but I had put my gym membership on hold because I was having trouble getting up and down off the floor (the knees) and worried that repetitive stress from the machines would cause problems with other joints like my shoulders.
Sometimes I feel as though my wishes (admittedly mostly modest and unselfish ones) come true.
A class has opened up at the Collingswood Community Center on Tuesday at 11:15 for Chair Yoga. The teacher, Scott, is exceptional, I took a few of his classes when I had my gym membership at Royal Fitness in Barrington, though he is officially connected with Yogawood, also in Collingswood.
This yoga is easy on the joints but helps you stretch out and strengthen without stress. I can also have back problems if I'm not careful, which I discovered when I ruptured a disc taking a kayak off an SUV also some years back. I strongly recommend this class to anyone who wants to stay flexible and maintain motion without threat of injury. It is a small class of 4 people and the teacher and it is low key and relaxing. I feel wonderful when I leave at the end of that hour. (It is only $5 for the hour.)
Also in Collingswood, you can drive by the Knights Collings House on Collings Lane, built in 1825. Their last event was June 8th when they hosted the Parents who have written an Acadia book on Gloucester City. The Knights Collings House is always looking for volunteers for a variety of helpful tasks, gardening, tours, some office work. I believe a fiber group meets there as well. In the autumn, they have a great Edgar Allen Poe theater event which I've attended a couple of times.
Whenever I visit a nearby town, I always pick up their local newspapers and brochures. What's On - Collingswood, is very informative. I get it at the Communicty Center which is right next to the speedline and the fire-house on Collings Ave, center of town, and open to the public. Stop in and find out what's going on in Collingwood, a superb small town. Also, don't forget their excellent Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings, for fresh local produce, music, breakfast or lunch, flowers, and a colorful relaxing morning event.
Well, Trixie and I are off to Big Timber Creek now, hope to see you on the trail or at the Chair Yoga class = Tuesday 11:15 at the Communicty Center in Collingswood.
Jo Ann wrightj45@yaho.com
Monday, June 10, 2013
Upcoming events and Roundtable review
Well, the Burlington County Historians Roundtable was, as usual, interesting and enlightening. As is the usual procedure, individuals representing various historic sites rose to talk of their developments and upcoming events. Just to mention a few:
1.Country Day at Kirby's Mill is 2nd Sunday in July (I've visited Kirby's Mill for other events and it is a beautiful place)
2.29th of June is the bBlueberry Festival at Whitesbog (which I have attended many times with great pleasure)
This past weekend there was a Green Festival at Smithville, which I didn't attend but I wanted to let you know it also was the opening of the new Underground Railroad exhibit at that site and we were told there was an excellent brochure available on the topic. I will get there sometime this summer as the Underground Railroad is another big interest of mine.
3.Tentative dates for the next Roundtable are September 28 at the Red Dragon Canoe Club and November 23rd at the Quaker Meeting in Mount Holly.
4.There is a Crossroads of the Revolution meeting taking place this weekend and I believe on June 13th it is being held at Batsto. Please check that as I seem to have deleted the message from my e-mail with the dates for that meeting.
5.Also an event you need to check on is the Monmouth Battlefield Event which I believe will also take place this upcoming weekend.
6.July 17 through 20 will see the History Faire at the Farm FAir again at Columbus Market. You can shop and explore history all in one trip.
Columbus Farmers Market is worth a whole blog in and of itself. Another day, perhaps, but let me just say it is the Delaware Valley's Oldest and Largest Flea Market! If you haven't been there, you should go.
I'm sorry, I took lots of notes but I can't read my writing (writing on my lap on a sheet of paper without my glasses on) and I can only get parts of things, but perhaps anything of special interest you could look up on google:
Riverfront Historical Society remembers the Battle of Salem Church, Spottsylvania, Va. with an annual reunion of re-enactors.
Also, the Beverly American Legion remembers the 110th Anniversary of the NJ Yahoos- the 234d Regiment, for you Civil War afficianados.
Soon, soon, hopefully, there will be an Armed Forces Museum we can visit at Camp Dix. They are working on it.
It was mentioned that there is actually a national one-room schoolhouse organization which I plan to look up and join. They have a magazine, too. I have truly enjoyed the two tims I took the Burlington County One-Room Schoolhouse tours - once on a tour bus, and once when you drove yourself. Both trips were excellent. They occur in the autumn. As a retired teacher, I'm always interested in the history of American education. Speaking of that subject, there was a very good essay on Clara Barton in the American History Magazine recently.
As you know, the school house she turned into a public school funded by taxpayer subscription to serve all the children, not only the well-to-do, is in Bordentown, which is where the Roundtable was held this month, at the Library on 18 E. Union Street.
One of the topics at the Roundtable was how to market and publicize your historic site. They gave us a wonderful packet of information on "Eight Basic Steps to Marketing Your Nonprofit Organization." At the end of the program, when we were asked if we had anything to add, I suggested Blogging and I mentioned Blogspot. It is fascinating to me to see the statistics that the blogspot.com site keeps. This simple blog has had 23,600 visitors, often over 30 per day! Knowing that helps to keep me posting. Hope you enjoy! Happy Trails - Jo Ann
1.Country Day at Kirby's Mill is 2nd Sunday in July (I've visited Kirby's Mill for other events and it is a beautiful place)
2.29th of June is the bBlueberry Festival at Whitesbog (which I have attended many times with great pleasure)
This past weekend there was a Green Festival at Smithville, which I didn't attend but I wanted to let you know it also was the opening of the new Underground Railroad exhibit at that site and we were told there was an excellent brochure available on the topic. I will get there sometime this summer as the Underground Railroad is another big interest of mine.
3.Tentative dates for the next Roundtable are September 28 at the Red Dragon Canoe Club and November 23rd at the Quaker Meeting in Mount Holly.
4.There is a Crossroads of the Revolution meeting taking place this weekend and I believe on June 13th it is being held at Batsto. Please check that as I seem to have deleted the message from my e-mail with the dates for that meeting.
5.Also an event you need to check on is the Monmouth Battlefield Event which I believe will also take place this upcoming weekend.
6.July 17 through 20 will see the History Faire at the Farm FAir again at Columbus Market. You can shop and explore history all in one trip.
Columbus Farmers Market is worth a whole blog in and of itself. Another day, perhaps, but let me just say it is the Delaware Valley's Oldest and Largest Flea Market! If you haven't been there, you should go.
I'm sorry, I took lots of notes but I can't read my writing (writing on my lap on a sheet of paper without my glasses on) and I can only get parts of things, but perhaps anything of special interest you could look up on google:
Riverfront Historical Society remembers the Battle of Salem Church, Spottsylvania, Va. with an annual reunion of re-enactors.
Also, the Beverly American Legion remembers the 110th Anniversary of the NJ Yahoos- the 234d Regiment, for you Civil War afficianados.
Soon, soon, hopefully, there will be an Armed Forces Museum we can visit at Camp Dix. They are working on it.
It was mentioned that there is actually a national one-room schoolhouse organization which I plan to look up and join. They have a magazine, too. I have truly enjoyed the two tims I took the Burlington County One-Room Schoolhouse tours - once on a tour bus, and once when you drove yourself. Both trips were excellent. They occur in the autumn. As a retired teacher, I'm always interested in the history of American education. Speaking of that subject, there was a very good essay on Clara Barton in the American History Magazine recently.
As you know, the school house she turned into a public school funded by taxpayer subscription to serve all the children, not only the well-to-do, is in Bordentown, which is where the Roundtable was held this month, at the Library on 18 E. Union Street.
One of the topics at the Roundtable was how to market and publicize your historic site. They gave us a wonderful packet of information on "Eight Basic Steps to Marketing Your Nonprofit Organization." At the end of the program, when we were asked if we had anything to add, I suggested Blogging and I mentioned Blogspot. It is fascinating to me to see the statistics that the blogspot.com site keeps. This simple blog has had 23,600 visitors, often over 30 per day! Knowing that helps to keep me posting. Hope you enjoy! Happy Trails - Jo Ann
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Found At Last!!
Have you ever been somewhere and then tried to find that place again only to search in vain?
Some years back, I was a passenger in an acquaintance's car and we hiked in a very interesting and unusual place. It was a golf course, allowed to go back to nature (as much as such an engineered environment can). At the time, the new growth made it like a savannah with paved golf cart paths to walk on. It was a hot summer day and I felt as though it wouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination to see velociraptors swinging their long necks up out of the undergrowth. It was definitely a Jurassic Park looking place.
For all the intervening years, I have tried to find this place, but, I had remembered the location all wrong. Since I was a passenger (and also do not have a very precise or clear memory to begin with) I thought it was near Forsythe. Also, I wasn't in communication with that long ago acquaintance anymore, so I couldn't simply ask where we had been.
Yesterday in the outer ruffle of Tropical Storm Andrea, a friend and I made our way to the Villas to visit my cousin Patty, who lives there. As I bring my dog whenever I can, Trixie Belden, a Lab mix and a better hiker or companion you couldn't find, was snoozing in the back seat. My cousin suggested we take a look at Cox Hall Wildlife Management Area which would be a good place to walk the dog. She said it had been closed for a time for some demolition and renewal but was open again.
To my surprise, Cox Hall Wildlife Management Area was the lost savannah. I had searched all those years in the wrong seashore area. How strange memory can be.
We couldn't hike long enough to find the lake because we had been granted only a short break in the downpour. However now that I know where it is, I will go back and find the lake, and maybe when I do, I'll run into YOU there, now that you know where it is!
The history of the place is that it is a part of the 87 acre Cox Hall Creek drainage system. It was Pnderlodge Golf Course until purchased by the Green Acres Program (for which I am proud to say, I was a voter). The property had been slated for numerous building projects including a hosuing developmebnt and a college campus until Green Acres bought it and planned for it to return to its natural state, which might help the Cox Hall Creek, which I understand was in poor shape due to development.
Planning for the use of the new environment included the idea that interesting outdoor spaces appropriate for backyard gardeners may be created to inspire them to create wildlife friendly environments in their own yards.
The best site I found to learn more about this interesting site and it's history is at: http://www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/cox-hall-creek-wma/
The link to the Atlantic City Press site never loaded properly. It appeared to be about the closing of the area for the demolition of buildings on the former course, the PonderLodge, and so on. The are is located in Lower Township, but I think it was off Shore Road. I couldn't find a better address this morning and didn't have time to search, but you can, I'm sure, given some time, find an address on the 'net.
I'm in a hurry this morning because today is the Burlington County Historians' Roundtable at Bordentown Library 18 E. Union Street in Bordentown. I've missed many of the prvious ones due to overlapping engagements, however I'll be at this one. Hope to see you there. It is at 10:00 a.m.
Have you found and lost or lost and found a favorite spot you'd like to share?
wrightj45@yahoo.com
Happy Trails! Gosh it is nice to see the sun again! Jo Ann
Some years back, I was a passenger in an acquaintance's car and we hiked in a very interesting and unusual place. It was a golf course, allowed to go back to nature (as much as such an engineered environment can). At the time, the new growth made it like a savannah with paved golf cart paths to walk on. It was a hot summer day and I felt as though it wouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination to see velociraptors swinging their long necks up out of the undergrowth. It was definitely a Jurassic Park looking place.
For all the intervening years, I have tried to find this place, but, I had remembered the location all wrong. Since I was a passenger (and also do not have a very precise or clear memory to begin with) I thought it was near Forsythe. Also, I wasn't in communication with that long ago acquaintance anymore, so I couldn't simply ask where we had been.
Yesterday in the outer ruffle of Tropical Storm Andrea, a friend and I made our way to the Villas to visit my cousin Patty, who lives there. As I bring my dog whenever I can, Trixie Belden, a Lab mix and a better hiker or companion you couldn't find, was snoozing in the back seat. My cousin suggested we take a look at Cox Hall Wildlife Management Area which would be a good place to walk the dog. She said it had been closed for a time for some demolition and renewal but was open again.
To my surprise, Cox Hall Wildlife Management Area was the lost savannah. I had searched all those years in the wrong seashore area. How strange memory can be.
We couldn't hike long enough to find the lake because we had been granted only a short break in the downpour. However now that I know where it is, I will go back and find the lake, and maybe when I do, I'll run into YOU there, now that you know where it is!
The history of the place is that it is a part of the 87 acre Cox Hall Creek drainage system. It was Pnderlodge Golf Course until purchased by the Green Acres Program (for which I am proud to say, I was a voter). The property had been slated for numerous building projects including a hosuing developmebnt and a college campus until Green Acres bought it and planned for it to return to its natural state, which might help the Cox Hall Creek, which I understand was in poor shape due to development.
Planning for the use of the new environment included the idea that interesting outdoor spaces appropriate for backyard gardeners may be created to inspire them to create wildlife friendly environments in their own yards.
The best site I found to learn more about this interesting site and it's history is at: http://www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/cox-hall-creek-wma/
The link to the Atlantic City Press site never loaded properly. It appeared to be about the closing of the area for the demolition of buildings on the former course, the PonderLodge, and so on. The are is located in Lower Township, but I think it was off Shore Road. I couldn't find a better address this morning and didn't have time to search, but you can, I'm sure, given some time, find an address on the 'net.
I'm in a hurry this morning because today is the Burlington County Historians' Roundtable at Bordentown Library 18 E. Union Street in Bordentown. I've missed many of the prvious ones due to overlapping engagements, however I'll be at this one. Hope to see you there. It is at 10:00 a.m.
Have you found and lost or lost and found a favorite spot you'd like to share?
wrightj45@yahoo.com
Happy Trails! Gosh it is nice to see the sun again! Jo Ann
Friday, June 7, 2013
Bartram's Gardens and Chanticleer
If you are wondering what could possibly be the connection between the gardens listed in the title and historic places in South Jersey, you are right. There really isn't any, except that John Bartram was a Quaker and the Delaware Valley as a whole was seeded, cultivated and reaped the rich reward of Quakerism. We had the house tour and the garden tour and of course we saw the Franklinia tree along with many other rare and beautiful specimens. My favorite was the imposing London Sycamore, a hybrid born of a sturdy London branch and a more fragile American variety.
The Bartram house was built in the first decades of the 1700's, and in it Mrs. Bartram raised nine children and ran the family business which was horticulture. Wealthy English gardeners would finance expeditions in the new world of North America, on the search for new and rare species to grace their gardens. Bartram would satisfy their requirements while gathering seeds, cones, and specimen for his own cultivation and sale. That was how he supported himself and his large family. He had shown a love of plants from his early childhood and he, and one of his sons, were gifted botanical artists.
Chanticleer is 35 acres of breathtaking gardens, especially just now as everything is in bloom. It is outside the Wayne, Rador area. You know how landscape designers speak of 'outdoor rooms' well there were dozens of settings where you could sit in the shade and enjoy the view of a water feature, a little bridge, fish pond, artistically re-created ruin, or any number of arrangements of flowering and unusual trees.
786 Church Road, Wayne, Pa. 19087 610-687-4163
Here's another New Jersey connection, the trip was arranged through Senior Citizens United of Camden County, located off Nicholson Rd. across the street from the Acme at the corner of Nicholson and Black Horse Pike. You don't need to be a Camden County senior, or even a senior to take one of their many trips. This trip cost $77 which covered everything, tours, lunch and a very comfortable bus. The whole day was a sheer delight with the most delicious weather anyone could have wished for. I'll post a page of photographs when I get home again.
Off to the Villas today to visit a friend. More on Villas history later - Happy Trails, Jo Ann
The Bartram house was built in the first decades of the 1700's, and in it Mrs. Bartram raised nine children and ran the family business which was horticulture. Wealthy English gardeners would finance expeditions in the new world of North America, on the search for new and rare species to grace their gardens. Bartram would satisfy their requirements while gathering seeds, cones, and specimen for his own cultivation and sale. That was how he supported himself and his large family. He had shown a love of plants from his early childhood and he, and one of his sons, were gifted botanical artists.
Chanticleer is 35 acres of breathtaking gardens, especially just now as everything is in bloom. It is outside the Wayne, Rador area. You know how landscape designers speak of 'outdoor rooms' well there were dozens of settings where you could sit in the shade and enjoy the view of a water feature, a little bridge, fish pond, artistically re-created ruin, or any number of arrangements of flowering and unusual trees.
786 Church Road, Wayne, Pa. 19087 610-687-4163
Here's another New Jersey connection, the trip was arranged through Senior Citizens United of Camden County, located off Nicholson Rd. across the street from the Acme at the corner of Nicholson and Black Horse Pike. You don't need to be a Camden County senior, or even a senior to take one of their many trips. This trip cost $77 which covered everything, tours, lunch and a very comfortable bus. The whole day was a sheer delight with the most delicious weather anyone could have wished for. I'll post a page of photographs when I get home again.
Off to the Villas today to visit a friend. More on Villas history later - Happy Trails, Jo Ann
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Barbary Pirates and two hanged men
Yesterday, Saturday, the first of June, I realized a long held goal and visited both the Somers Mansion, which I have eyed with great curiosity for decades, and the Atlantic County Heritage Center in Somers Point of Shore Road (look for the parking lot driveway just before you see the building).
The Somers name is a very old and venerable one and much connected with the sea. John Somers, the original settler came from Worchestshire, England in the 1680's. Richard Somers, eldest son of John Somers, built the house in 1724. The Somers family had a house on the Egg Harbor side of the bay as well. A later descendant, also named Richard Somers, born in Egg Harbor in 1778 became a Commander in the U.S. Navy and went to school with Stephen Decatur and served under Captain John Barry. He died at sea in a daring assault against the Barbary Pirates holed up in the harbor at Tripoli. The ship he was on was carrying explosives to burn out the nest of thieves when it blew up. His body has never been returned to US soil for burial and the effort to bring home his remains is carried on to this day.
Many ships have been given the Somers name. One such ship, a brig, was being used as a school for seamen, in 1842, when it was discovered that a group of mutineers was planning to take over the ship and turn it to piracy. The plot was discovered and two of the three ring leaders, Spencer, Cromwell, and Small were hanged from the yard arm. As though the ship were cursed as a result of this event, four years later, she foundered and sank in a storm off of Vera Cruz and thirty crewmen drowned. There is a small painting of the ship with the two mutineers haning from the yard arm in the corner of the upstair room of the Atlantic County Heritage Center. I would never have noticed or understood what I was seeing if not for the kind help of the docent who gave us our tour. I strongly recommend a visit to this excellent Heritage Center and, as is always the case, opt for the tour. The docents know all sorts of things you might not notice without them pointing it out. They were very kind to us and it is worth a mention that most docents are volunteers and are worthy of our gratitude for the time they put in to protect and share our historic legacy.
Address 907 Shore Rd., PO Box 301, Somers Point, NJ 08244, phone (609) 927-521www.Atlantic HeritageCenterNJ.org Open Wed. thru Sat. 10:00 to 3:30 and one evening, first Thurs. 6-9.
After our tours of the Center and Mansion, we made our way to Ocean City for the Ocean City Coffee Shop on the board walk.
What a beautiful, breezy and interesting day.
Happy Trails!
("From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli" - the marines hymn. "The Shores of Tripoli" refers to the first Babary War 1805.)
ps. Personal note: My grandmother, Mabel Wright lived for 40 years in Ocean City, on Asbury Avenue and on Bay. And my hospital roommate, the day I gave birth to my daughter, was a Somers, Donna Somers, now deceased, but always to be remembered with fondness. We spent many happy days visiting at the seashore where she lived as our children grew up. Her son, Christian still lives at the seashore.
The Somers name is a very old and venerable one and much connected with the sea. John Somers, the original settler came from Worchestshire, England in the 1680's. Richard Somers, eldest son of John Somers, built the house in 1724. The Somers family had a house on the Egg Harbor side of the bay as well. A later descendant, also named Richard Somers, born in Egg Harbor in 1778 became a Commander in the U.S. Navy and went to school with Stephen Decatur and served under Captain John Barry. He died at sea in a daring assault against the Barbary Pirates holed up in the harbor at Tripoli. The ship he was on was carrying explosives to burn out the nest of thieves when it blew up. His body has never been returned to US soil for burial and the effort to bring home his remains is carried on to this day.
Many ships have been given the Somers name. One such ship, a brig, was being used as a school for seamen, in 1842, when it was discovered that a group of mutineers was planning to take over the ship and turn it to piracy. The plot was discovered and two of the three ring leaders, Spencer, Cromwell, and Small were hanged from the yard arm. As though the ship were cursed as a result of this event, four years later, she foundered and sank in a storm off of Vera Cruz and thirty crewmen drowned. There is a small painting of the ship with the two mutineers haning from the yard arm in the corner of the upstair room of the Atlantic County Heritage Center. I would never have noticed or understood what I was seeing if not for the kind help of the docent who gave us our tour. I strongly recommend a visit to this excellent Heritage Center and, as is always the case, opt for the tour. The docents know all sorts of things you might not notice without them pointing it out. They were very kind to us and it is worth a mention that most docents are volunteers and are worthy of our gratitude for the time they put in to protect and share our historic legacy.
Address 907 Shore Rd., PO Box 301, Somers Point, NJ 08244, phone (609) 927-521www.Atlantic HeritageCenterNJ.org Open Wed. thru Sat. 10:00 to 3:30 and one evening, first Thurs. 6-9.
After our tours of the Center and Mansion, we made our way to Ocean City for the Ocean City Coffee Shop on the board walk.
What a beautiful, breezy and interesting day.
Happy Trails!
("From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli" - the marines hymn. "The Shores of Tripoli" refers to the first Babary War 1805.)
ps. Personal note: My grandmother, Mabel Wright lived for 40 years in Ocean City, on Asbury Avenue and on Bay. And my hospital roommate, the day I gave birth to my daughter, was a Somers, Donna Somers, now deceased, but always to be remembered with fondness. We spent many happy days visiting at the seashore where she lived as our children grew up. Her son, Christian still lives at the seashore.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Still the Garden State
Hello! If you read the last blog, you might be wondering what a vegan eats.
I can't speak for the others but I can tell you my diet. I have a couple of special considerations: 1. I don't cook 2. I love vegetables and fruits
Each morning, for breakfast, I have Bare Naked cereal with strawberries, a banana and either rice milk or almond breeze - all of which I buy at Shop-Rite in Bellmawr.
For lunch I have crackers and hummus and baby carrots (all my veg and fruits are organic and all are available at Shop-Rite, though I do buy from farm stands and local farm markets both to support local grown produce efforts and to get fresh stuff).
For dinner, every day, I have a BIG salad: a bed or organic baby leaf spinach, chick peas, black olives, broccolli florets, grated carrots, and other kinds of vegetables in season and for variety such as cauliflower and peppers and famous Jersey tomatoes. I use raspberry vinaigrette dressing.
For snacks, I eat a lot of peanuts (in the shell and unsalted) or walnuts and cranberries, or almonds.
I drink green tea with honey, or any number of other varieties of tea - organic and decaf.
In summer I supplement with ears of corn and in winter with sweet potatoes and I make a good vegetarian chili and lots of vegetable soup.
My needs are simple. For bigger and better recipes, new vegans or vegetarians should get magazines and books with recipes.
New, small town markets are springing up all over the place. The venerable one in Collingswood offers music and a place to sit down and eat as well as lots of vendors with a wide array of delicious fruits, vegetables and breads. I've heard there is one in Westmont and another in Haddonfield. I'll try to check them out this summer and give some reviews and special notes of good things to buy.
If you wonder how a vegan eats out - there are a surprising number of options. I go to the movies at the Rave Cinema in Voorhees and have lunch at the Olive garden where I get the soup and salad lunch, minnestrone soup.
Also, I like to eat at Bankock City Restaurant, next door to the cinema, in Eagle Plaza. They have many kinds of vegan and vegetarian selections. In Collingswood there is a vegetarian/Asian food restaurant, and Salad Works and also Tortilla Press has some good items. Most places, such as diners, have spanikopita (spinache pie) and vegeburgers now, and there are lots of food substitutes at the Shop Rite near the organic vegetables.
Last year I heard a great lecture from a big farm concern in far South Jersey, it was at Bivalve at a 2nd Friday evening, and the farmer said his brother had split off and gone into organics. It is the future!
Off to Bankock City right now to see an old school friend for lunch and a movie - a good thing to do on a 95 degree day. My dog and i visited Big Timber Creek Park but cut our walk short this morning because even though we left at 8:30 and it was fairly cool, by 10:00 my dog was lying down in the shade and refusing to move!
Happy Trails! May they all be shady - Jo Ann
I can't speak for the others but I can tell you my diet. I have a couple of special considerations: 1. I don't cook 2. I love vegetables and fruits
Each morning, for breakfast, I have Bare Naked cereal with strawberries, a banana and either rice milk or almond breeze - all of which I buy at Shop-Rite in Bellmawr.
For lunch I have crackers and hummus and baby carrots (all my veg and fruits are organic and all are available at Shop-Rite, though I do buy from farm stands and local farm markets both to support local grown produce efforts and to get fresh stuff).
For dinner, every day, I have a BIG salad: a bed or organic baby leaf spinach, chick peas, black olives, broccolli florets, grated carrots, and other kinds of vegetables in season and for variety such as cauliflower and peppers and famous Jersey tomatoes. I use raspberry vinaigrette dressing.
For snacks, I eat a lot of peanuts (in the shell and unsalted) or walnuts and cranberries, or almonds.
I drink green tea with honey, or any number of other varieties of tea - organic and decaf.
In summer I supplement with ears of corn and in winter with sweet potatoes and I make a good vegetarian chili and lots of vegetable soup.
My needs are simple. For bigger and better recipes, new vegans or vegetarians should get magazines and books with recipes.
New, small town markets are springing up all over the place. The venerable one in Collingswood offers music and a place to sit down and eat as well as lots of vendors with a wide array of delicious fruits, vegetables and breads. I've heard there is one in Westmont and another in Haddonfield. I'll try to check them out this summer and give some reviews and special notes of good things to buy.
If you wonder how a vegan eats out - there are a surprising number of options. I go to the movies at the Rave Cinema in Voorhees and have lunch at the Olive garden where I get the soup and salad lunch, minnestrone soup.
Also, I like to eat at Bankock City Restaurant, next door to the cinema, in Eagle Plaza. They have many kinds of vegan and vegetarian selections. In Collingswood there is a vegetarian/Asian food restaurant, and Salad Works and also Tortilla Press has some good items. Most places, such as diners, have spanikopita (spinache pie) and vegeburgers now, and there are lots of food substitutes at the Shop Rite near the organic vegetables.
Last year I heard a great lecture from a big farm concern in far South Jersey, it was at Bivalve at a 2nd Friday evening, and the farmer said his brother had split off and gone into organics. It is the future!
Off to Bankock City right now to see an old school friend for lunch and a movie - a good thing to do on a 95 degree day. My dog and i visited Big Timber Creek Park but cut our walk short this morning because even though we left at 8:30 and it was fairly cool, by 10:00 my dog was lying down in the shade and refusing to move!
Happy Trails! May they all be shady - Jo Ann
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Historic Vegetarianism
It may come as a surprise to recent vegetarians or non-vegetarians, but the vegetarian movement had a very early start in America and is not at all a new idea. One of the most famous of early vegetarians was New Jersian John Woolman. You may have seen my post on visiting his historic house 99 Branch Street, Mount Holly.
Anyhow, I've been a vegetarian for the most part of the last 40 years or so and it was interesting to me that two of my friends attended the American Vegan Garden Party in Malaga on Sunday, May 26th. As soon as my yoghurt and honey are gone, I'm going vegan too. My daughter was a vegan for some years and it gave me an insight into the possibility of it.
My motives are both health and ethics.
If you are interested in learning more the American Vegan Society is at 56-72 Dinshah Lane, Malaga, NJ 08328, phone 856-694-2887 and
www.americanvegan.org.
I'm joining the society and plan to attend the next Garden Party. I'll let you know when it will be held.
Here is a quote from the journal of John Woolman, influential Quaker theologian
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
Anyhow, I've been a vegetarian for the most part of the last 40 years or so and it was interesting to me that two of my friends attended the American Vegan Garden Party in Malaga on Sunday, May 26th. As soon as my yoghurt and honey are gone, I'm going vegan too. My daughter was a vegan for some years and it gave me an insight into the possibility of it.
My motives are both health and ethics.
If you are interested in learning more the American Vegan Society is at 56-72 Dinshah Lane, Malaga, NJ 08328, phone 856-694-2887 and
www.americanvegan.org.
I'm joining the society and plan to attend the next Garden Party. I'll let you know when it will be held.
Here is a quote from the journal of John Woolman, influential Quaker theologian
The Exercise of Cruelty ~ John Woolman
"...as by his breath the flame of life was kindled in all animal and sensitive creatures, to say we love God ... and at the same time exercise cruelty toward the least creature ... was a contradiction in itself."
John Woolman, 1772
John Woolman, 1772
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Genealogy News
I just received an e-mail notice with the following information for anyone interested in family history in our area:
"On June 1st, there are two events happening of interest to genealogists. The Genealogical Society of New Jersey is having their Spring Genealogy Program in Burlington County. The topics and speakers for the day are:
I hope many of you are able to attend this great opportunity! Click here for more information and details about registering by May 28th. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njgsnj/pdf/2013SpringProgram.pdf
Also on June 1st, if you are planning on staying in Salem County, we will have a booth set up at the Pennsville Historical Society's Farm Day at Church Landing Farm."
Once we were the Garden State and if you are a hiker as I am and spend time in the woods and beside the creeks and rivers, you know what a blessedly watery place we live. This morning as I walked my dog, Trixie beside the Big Timber Creek in the light shower, I couldn't help but feel how lucky we are to live in such a green and verdant place. I would like to learn more about the farms and farm communities. I'll be visiting a farm market held at Collingswood in the morning on June 1st, so I don't know if I can make the Pennsville Historical Society's Farm Day but things can change in an instant and I may end up there instead.
"On June 1st, there are two events happening of interest to genealogists. The Genealogical Society of New Jersey is having their Spring Genealogy Program in Burlington County. The topics and speakers for the day are:
- "No Person Shall...Gallop Horses In the Streets" - Using Court Records to Tell the Story of Our Ancestors' Lives by Judy G. Russell, CG, CGL
- Quiltmaking That Saw Us Through WWII by Sue Reich
- Quaker Genealogy Research by Dr. C. Miller Biddle
- Building A Family From Circumstantial Evidence by Judy G. Russell, CG, CGL
- With Needle and Scroll presented by Sue Reich
- This Land Is Your Land! House and Property Research presented by Larry Fermi
- Burlington County Genealogical Resources presented by Judith M. Olsen
I hope many of you are able to attend this great opportunity! Click here for more information and details about registering by May 28th. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njgsnj/pdf/2013SpringProgram.pdf
Also on June 1st, if you are planning on staying in Salem County, we will have a booth set up at the Pennsville Historical Society's Farm Day at Church Landing Farm."
Once we were the Garden State and if you are a hiker as I am and spend time in the woods and beside the creeks and rivers, you know what a blessedly watery place we live. This morning as I walked my dog, Trixie beside the Big Timber Creek in the light shower, I couldn't help but feel how lucky we are to live in such a green and verdant place. I would like to learn more about the farms and farm communities. I'll be visiting a farm market held at Collingswood in the morning on June 1st, so I don't know if I can make the Pennsville Historical Society's Farm Day but things can change in an instant and I may end up there instead.
Monday, May 27, 2013
A Quiet Memorial Day weekend
Before I blog about the weekend in the abandoned cities, I have a question: Does anyone know where Lebanon Lake is? It is the site of the Cheesman Millk but I have driven all over and searched the web and cannot find the location of this lake. It must be large and it must be nearby, and I've ssen it on maps, but can't make out the bordering streets. If you know please contact me at wrightj45@yahoo.com - Thanks in advance for any help.
Sunday, a friend and I decided to visit Bordentown and Burlington cities. They were like ghost towns, which is fine by me. On Friday, coming home from Estell Manor, I had passed over a solid log jam of cars on 42 on the way to the seashore, and the same on 295 and Black Horse Pike.
It was a good weekend to stay home, or at least, close to home. So in Bordentown, we stopped for lunch after walking the charming streets and visiting the Iris Garden, which had passed its prime, but it was still pretty.
We ate in an Italian restaurant, but were shocked to discover, on paying the bill, that we had been charged $3 or every decaf coffee refill! Our salads were $10 each, but our coffee was almost equal!
What made up for it a little was stopping at the OLD BOOK SHOP OF BORDENTOWN, open Tues. to Sun. also from 11 to 5, but I recommend you call and let them know you are coming if you are going there especially to buy something. (609) 324-9909. Their web address is:
www.oldbooshopofbordentown.com
I bought several pamphlet type booklets there
1. One Hudred and Fiftieth Aniiversary of the Battle of Red Bank
2. Letters and Papers of Richard Somers
3. An Archaeological Journey at Point Breeze
4. Old Farms and Farmhouses in New Jersey
5. Gloucester County in the Civil War
When I finish reading them, I will donate them to the appropriate places.*
Next we headed over to Burlington City to visit St. Mary's Episcopal Church and walk in the churchyard and also to go down and look at the Delaware River. While there, we stopped in to browse at the HISTORIC BURLINGTON ANTIQUES & ART EMPORIUM. It is open 7 days a week from 11-5, which was quite a relief because almost everything else in both towns was closed. My friend Nancy was looking for intereting patio furnishings, I was looking at everything but my favorite thing was a wooden picnic basket lined in red checked gingham with a checkers game painted on the inside of the lid. It was very reasonable too, only $15, but I rarely have that kind of picnic anymore. Their web address is
www.antiquesnj.com
*Speaking of donating my booklets to the appropriate places. I hope to visit the Atlantic Heritage Center one day soon and to finally get inside the Somers Mansion on Somers Point where the old Somers Point circle used to be.
Heritage web addres is:
www.AtlanticHeritageCenterNJ.org
So, a lovely weekend with no traffic and a beautiful cool walk at the Big Timber Creek Dog Park with Trixie each day early in the morning. Hope your Memorial Day was safe and that you had a moment to contemplate the men who gave their lives to keep our nation free. I was fortunate enough to catch the last part of a ceremony on the Black Horse Pike at a War Memorial.
Upcoming Event: Blrulington County Historians Roundtable June 8th Saturday. Maybe I'll see you there!
Happy Trails, Jo Ann
Sunday, a friend and I decided to visit Bordentown and Burlington cities. They were like ghost towns, which is fine by me. On Friday, coming home from Estell Manor, I had passed over a solid log jam of cars on 42 on the way to the seashore, and the same on 295 and Black Horse Pike.
It was a good weekend to stay home, or at least, close to home. So in Bordentown, we stopped for lunch after walking the charming streets and visiting the Iris Garden, which had passed its prime, but it was still pretty.
We ate in an Italian restaurant, but were shocked to discover, on paying the bill, that we had been charged $3 or every decaf coffee refill! Our salads were $10 each, but our coffee was almost equal!
What made up for it a little was stopping at the OLD BOOK SHOP OF BORDENTOWN, open Tues. to Sun. also from 11 to 5, but I recommend you call and let them know you are coming if you are going there especially to buy something. (609) 324-9909. Their web address is:
www.oldbooshopofbordentown.com
I bought several pamphlet type booklets there
1. One Hudred and Fiftieth Aniiversary of the Battle of Red Bank
2. Letters and Papers of Richard Somers
3. An Archaeological Journey at Point Breeze
4. Old Farms and Farmhouses in New Jersey
5. Gloucester County in the Civil War
When I finish reading them, I will donate them to the appropriate places.*
Next we headed over to Burlington City to visit St. Mary's Episcopal Church and walk in the churchyard and also to go down and look at the Delaware River. While there, we stopped in to browse at the HISTORIC BURLINGTON ANTIQUES & ART EMPORIUM. It is open 7 days a week from 11-5, which was quite a relief because almost everything else in both towns was closed. My friend Nancy was looking for intereting patio furnishings, I was looking at everything but my favorite thing was a wooden picnic basket lined in red checked gingham with a checkers game painted on the inside of the lid. It was very reasonable too, only $15, but I rarely have that kind of picnic anymore. Their web address is
www.antiquesnj.com
*Speaking of donating my booklets to the appropriate places. I hope to visit the Atlantic Heritage Center one day soon and to finally get inside the Somers Mansion on Somers Point where the old Somers Point circle used to be.
Heritage web addres is:
www.AtlanticHeritageCenterNJ.org
So, a lovely weekend with no traffic and a beautiful cool walk at the Big Timber Creek Dog Park with Trixie each day early in the morning. Hope your Memorial Day was safe and that you had a moment to contemplate the men who gave their lives to keep our nation free. I was fortunate enough to catch the last part of a ceremony on the Black Horse Pike at a War Memorial.
Upcoming Event: Blrulington County Historians Roundtable June 8th Saturday. Maybe I'll see you there!
Happy Trails, Jo Ann
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Things to do Places to go
Bay Day at Bivalve is coming up, June 1st. I used to volunteer giving tours of the museum at Bivalve and I can promise you it is a fascinating place with a relevent history and dedicated volunteers. On Bay Day there is music, food, and many kinds of activities including a 'wetlands' lecture/tour on the boardwalk bird watch, very short distance but packed with interesting facts.
Parking can be a problem on Bay Day as it is rightfully popular and there are provisions for that. You can park in a lot in town, Port Norris, and there are shuttles to take you to Bivalve, or you can get there early (it officially starts around noon, I think) and park down at Bivalve, but it might be closed to traffic other than volunteers that day, so consider parking at Port Norris. You may even wish to hike down there from Port Norris, not far, probably not a mile (which for the average walker is about 20 minutes). For more info, here is the web site. You can also google it at Bayshore Discovery Project:
http://www.ajmeerwald.org/
Also on June 1st there is a big "do" at the Indian King Tavern, another place I used to volunteer and that I highly recommend. Here is a quote from the e-mail:
The British will be making themselves comfortable at the Indian King Tavern, while the Continentals will find themselves camped out at the Historic Society of Haddonfield.
Parking can be a problem on Bay Day as it is rightfully popular and there are provisions for that. You can park in a lot in town, Port Norris, and there are shuttles to take you to Bivalve, or you can get there early (it officially starts around noon, I think) and park down at Bivalve, but it might be closed to traffic other than volunteers that day, so consider parking at Port Norris. You may even wish to hike down there from Port Norris, not far, probably not a mile (which for the average walker is about 20 minutes). For more info, here is the web site. You can also google it at Bayshore Discovery Project:
http://www.ajmeerwald.org/
Also on June 1st there is a big "do" at the Indian King Tavern, another place I used to volunteer and that I highly recommend. Here is a quote from the e-mail:
The British will be making themselves comfortable at the Indian King Tavern, while the Continentals will find themselves camped out at the Historic Society of Haddonfield.
At approximately 1P.M., the two groups shall meet for a skirmish right on Kings Highway in front of the Indian King Tavern.
(One block of Kings Highway will be shut down to traffic for this.)
The British will be making themselves comfortable at the Indian King Tavern, while the Continentals will find themselves camped out at the Historic Society of Haddonfield.
At approximately 1P.M., the two groups shall meet for a skirmish right on Kings Highway in front of the Indian King Tavern.
(One block of Kings Highway will be shut down to traffic for this.)
James and Ann Whittall House at Red Bank Battlefield is open for tours again. We had our first open house "Field Day" last Sunday and there is a new tour theme around the Yellow Fever, so if you've visited before, please go back for another visit. You can finally see the upstairs as well as one of the rooms is now fitted out to the the new theme and open for visitors - a first!
Yesterday, two friends and I visited Estell Manor for a hike and we stopped to consider the flags in the veterans cemetery there. So many young men gave up their lives to keep our nation free.......I stopped to think about the meaning of that phrase "gave up their lives" literally, they gave up their adulthood, their chance to marry, have children, buy a house, plant a garden, make a career, travel the endlessly adventurous road from youth to old age. How sad and how grateful we should be, so this Memorial Day, take a moment to give them a respectful consideration, or if you are so inclined a prayer. Naturally on Memorial Day, I think of my dad who died two years ago this month and who served in World War II. He was in the navy on troop transports and despite their high casualty average, he survivied to the venerable age of 89 and left five adult children behind and eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The last book he was reading before he died was "The Battle of Tassaferonga" which he had seen first hand. Another sad thought is how soon the last WWII vets will all be gone. Most will be in their nineties now.
If you go into the woods, spray WELL! I had three ticks on my legs when I left Estell Manor and I had sprayed my shoes but I had on khaki pants that were wide at the ankle and short socks. My friends wisely wore long socks and tucked their pants into them before they sprayed. That is precisely what I will do in the future, and, I will get a blood test at the end of summer as usual to make sure I didn't get Lynes Disease, which I have been spared so far.
If you like astronomy there is a SKYWATCH on Sat. June 15th at Estell Manor Park Nature Center from 7:30 to 10:00 p.m.
And Whitall House has field days third Sunday of the month, so there will be another in June if you missed May or wish to return.
Today I'm off to Bordentown to walk the Main street and visit the quaint shops and have lunch. I'll let you know what I learn there about interesting things to do and places to go in historic South Jersey.
Happy Trails To You! Jo Ann
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Pollen in the Pines
On Tuesday, Barb Solem and I took a hike with my dog Trixie at Pakim Pond in Brendon Byrne Forest. There was so much pollen it literally looked as though the woods were on fire and filled with smoke. It was an entire fog bound forest except the fog was pollen. I have never seen so much pollen anywhere.
Two documentaries I have seen really seemed pertinent to this experience. One was a pbs nature series production called "What Plants Talk About." Among the many revelations was how little we know about plants in general.
The other documentary was about Albert Einstein and an observation he made about asking questions about the things we see all around us, how that is what leads to the explorations into the deep secrets of our universe.
So the question I'm asking myself and anyone else who has experienced this phenomenon is Why was there so much pollen, such an unbelievable choking and clogging air-full of pollen this year? I've been going to the woods for 50 years and never experienced this amount of pollen.
Perhaps the woods are like the Great Barrier Reef, and have a giant quiet explosion of mating materials, sperm and egg, all at one time. And perhaps this was the day or the week when that happens. Somewhere, someone, perhaps at Rutgers or Stockton must be studying pollen.
Barbara's car was completely covered with a coating of it and when I got home, my glasses had a layer. Also, the pond had a thick coat like a pancake batter, or more accurately, like a crepe batter, a dark golden color, coagulating on the surface.
The pollen was so bad we had to cut our 5 mile hike from the pond to the Ranger Station in half and go back because it was choking us, and the dog, a mouth breather, of course, couldn't get a drink from any of the tiny path-side ponds because they had dried up and what little water was left was a mush and covered with the pollen.
Is this the natural expression of the pines in the last week of May? Anyone out there know?
Two documentaries I have seen really seemed pertinent to this experience. One was a pbs nature series production called "What Plants Talk About." Among the many revelations was how little we know about plants in general.
The other documentary was about Albert Einstein and an observation he made about asking questions about the things we see all around us, how that is what leads to the explorations into the deep secrets of our universe.
So the question I'm asking myself and anyone else who has experienced this phenomenon is Why was there so much pollen, such an unbelievable choking and clogging air-full of pollen this year? I've been going to the woods for 50 years and never experienced this amount of pollen.
Perhaps the woods are like the Great Barrier Reef, and have a giant quiet explosion of mating materials, sperm and egg, all at one time. And perhaps this was the day or the week when that happens. Somewhere, someone, perhaps at Rutgers or Stockton must be studying pollen.
Barbara's car was completely covered with a coating of it and when I got home, my glasses had a layer. Also, the pond had a thick coat like a pancake batter, or more accurately, like a crepe batter, a dark golden color, coagulating on the surface.
The pollen was so bad we had to cut our 5 mile hike from the pond to the Ranger Station in half and go back because it was choking us, and the dog, a mouth breather, of course, couldn't get a drink from any of the tiny path-side ponds because they had dried up and what little water was left was a mush and covered with the pollen.
Is this the natural expression of the pines in the last week of May? Anyone out there know?
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Egg Harbor City, Peace Pilgrim Park
If you have ever happened onto Peace Pilgrim Park in Egg Harbor City and wondered what it was all about, this is a good year to ask, as this is the 60th anniversary of Peace Pilgrim's monumental gesture to encourage people to consider Peace. She walked for 28 years across the United States carrying only a pencil. She had prepared for her journey by hiking rhe Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia. She wanted to promote the Power of Peace and she DID! Newspapers all over America documented her journey and thereby, her message.
There is a newsletter called Friends of Peace Pilgrim which is how I found out that this year is the 60th anniversary of the beginning of her immense effort. There are many books about her life and message and also there are events to celebrate her life and her message. You can write to Friends of Peace Pilgrim, P.O. Box 2207, Shelton, CT.06484 or call (203-926-1581 or visit the web site http://www.peacepilgrim.org/news/index.htm
The Peace Pilgrim weekend celebrating her work and her mission will be held September 20-22, 2013. I attended last year and I can tell you it was uplifting and interesting. It was held at the Egg Harbor City Middle School. Over 70 people attended the event I attended (which is how I got on the mailing list) and also attending was Peace Pilgrim's 97 year old sister Helene Young. Although one of the events of that weekend was a walk to Peace Pilgrim's birthplace on the outskirts of Egg Harbor City, I didn't attend that walk having visited that site on my own some time earlier in the year and also having hunted for her burial place, which I didn't succeed in finding. I would have left a flower for this brave and devoted advocate for Peace.
I found Peace Pilgrim Park when I was hunting out the 'Serpentine' canal. I think I may have written about that before. If not, I'll dig up my information on that and blog about it next time. It is well worth the trip. I have been there many times to visit the charming Historical Society on the same grounds.
Happy Trails and may you go in peace and stay in peace.
Jo Ann
There is a newsletter called Friends of Peace Pilgrim which is how I found out that this year is the 60th anniversary of the beginning of her immense effort. There are many books about her life and message and also there are events to celebrate her life and her message. You can write to Friends of Peace Pilgrim, P.O. Box 2207, Shelton, CT.06484 or call (203-926-1581 or visit the web site http://www.peacepilgrim.org/news/index.htm
The Peace Pilgrim weekend celebrating her work and her mission will be held September 20-22, 2013. I attended last year and I can tell you it was uplifting and interesting. It was held at the Egg Harbor City Middle School. Over 70 people attended the event I attended (which is how I got on the mailing list) and also attending was Peace Pilgrim's 97 year old sister Helene Young. Although one of the events of that weekend was a walk to Peace Pilgrim's birthplace on the outskirts of Egg Harbor City, I didn't attend that walk having visited that site on my own some time earlier in the year and also having hunted for her burial place, which I didn't succeed in finding. I would have left a flower for this brave and devoted advocate for Peace.
I found Peace Pilgrim Park when I was hunting out the 'Serpentine' canal. I think I may have written about that before. If not, I'll dig up my information on that and blog about it next time. It is well worth the trip. I have been there many times to visit the charming Historical Society on the same grounds.
Happy Trails and may you go in peace and stay in peace.
Jo Ann
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Cherry Hill: Looking Below the Surface
Last night, Tueday, May 14, at 7:00 p.m. the Cherry Hill Library hosted an excellent presentation given by Dr. Ilene Grossman-Bailey, president of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey. Although the focus was on Cherry Hill sites, Dr. Bailey did a generous overview and introduction for those new to archaeology. She spent a good deal of time on artifacts found from the Native Americans who once lived in the area, and offered a glimpse at several historic sites from the 1700's and 1800's which are still preserved in the Cherry Hill area, such as the Croft farm and Bonnie's Bridge.
This was so intriguing, I kept thinking it could have been an introduction to a series of programs and I am certain it would attract an audience. I counted twelve rows of ten seats each in the 'filled to capacity' conference room downstairs in the library.
For those who want more, there is an Archaeological Society of NJ May Meeting from 11:00 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at Croft Farm (Kay-Evans Farmhouse) at 100 Borton's Mill Rd. It is free and open to the public and there will be four talks given. The schedule offers a Board Meeting at 11:00, followed by lunch at 12, 12:30 President's Welcome, then a talk on the Cherry Hill Site, speakers- Tony Bonfiglio and Jack Cressons, followed by at 1:15 Results of Archaeology on the Madeiro I site, Moorestown, presented by Dr. Bailey, and finally at 1:30, Archaeology of the Kay Evans Farm, speaker, Michael Gall.
There is a number given on the flyer for more information 856-488-7886 or CHHC@CHTownship.com
I am hoping to attend. I'm meeting earlier in the morning with a friend from my old high school graduating class, but if we finish in time, I'll try to get there. In fact, Dr. Bailey said it was possible to skip the Board Meeting and come for the talks, which is what I plan to try to do.
I think the Colonial period would have been of interest to me, the families who came to the area and established the farms. But, I have to admit that the 1700's and 1800's are my favorite periods in history in this area, so I'm biased.
I enjoyed the talk enormously and was also glad to run into an old pal, Paul Schopp, who let me know the next Burlington County Historians Roundtable will be held on June 8. That is always an enlightening event and I've had to miss the last several meetings due to conflicts in scheduling. For more information on that, check out the web site.
http://www.burlcohistorian.com/
The roundtable will be held at Bordentown Library at 10:00 a.m., 18 E. Union Street. There are many interesting events posted at this site, be sure to check it out. If I had not already been booked for both days this weekend, I would have taken the Quaker Meeting House bus tour mentioned on the Burlco web site as there are still seats available.
I picked up a brochure on the Archaeological Socity of NJ and there was a Volunteer opportunity on Saturdays from June 1 to July 6 with the Monmouth University's field school dig at Fieldsboro, Burlington County. To learn more about this hands-on opportunity to be a part of a real dig, go to
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090D49ACAD2FA64-fieldsboro
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
This was so intriguing, I kept thinking it could have been an introduction to a series of programs and I am certain it would attract an audience. I counted twelve rows of ten seats each in the 'filled to capacity' conference room downstairs in the library.
For those who want more, there is an Archaeological Society of NJ May Meeting from 11:00 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at Croft Farm (Kay-Evans Farmhouse) at 100 Borton's Mill Rd. It is free and open to the public and there will be four talks given. The schedule offers a Board Meeting at 11:00, followed by lunch at 12, 12:30 President's Welcome, then a talk on the Cherry Hill Site, speakers- Tony Bonfiglio and Jack Cressons, followed by at 1:15 Results of Archaeology on the Madeiro I site, Moorestown, presented by Dr. Bailey, and finally at 1:30, Archaeology of the Kay Evans Farm, speaker, Michael Gall.
There is a number given on the flyer for more information 856-488-7886 or CHHC@CHTownship.com
I am hoping to attend. I'm meeting earlier in the morning with a friend from my old high school graduating class, but if we finish in time, I'll try to get there. In fact, Dr. Bailey said it was possible to skip the Board Meeting and come for the talks, which is what I plan to try to do.
I think the Colonial period would have been of interest to me, the families who came to the area and established the farms. But, I have to admit that the 1700's and 1800's are my favorite periods in history in this area, so I'm biased.
I enjoyed the talk enormously and was also glad to run into an old pal, Paul Schopp, who let me know the next Burlington County Historians Roundtable will be held on June 8. That is always an enlightening event and I've had to miss the last several meetings due to conflicts in scheduling. For more information on that, check out the web site.
http://www.burlcohistorian.com/
The roundtable will be held at Bordentown Library at 10:00 a.m., 18 E. Union Street. There are many interesting events posted at this site, be sure to check it out. If I had not already been booked for both days this weekend, I would have taken the Quaker Meeting House bus tour mentioned on the Burlco web site as there are still seats available.
I picked up a brochure on the Archaeological Socity of NJ and there was a Volunteer opportunity on Saturdays from June 1 to July 6 with the Monmouth University's field school dig at Fieldsboro, Burlington County. To learn more about this hands-on opportunity to be a part of a real dig, go to
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090D49ACAD2FA64-fieldsboro
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Late breaking news!
"What's Below The Surface" at the Cherry Hill Library, dowmstairs in the conference room, a lecture on local archaeology at 7:00 tonight. I'll be there! No advance registration needed.
Since blogspot tells me people check in every day I thought I'd let anyone checking in know about this event.
Since blogspot tells me people check in every day I thought I'd let anyone checking in know about this event.
Happy Trails
In my last post, just a few minutes ago, I ended with my usual closing wish for you to enjoy "Happy Trails" and then I mentioned the recent (January 27, 2013) death of Sally Starr. You may have wondered what the connection was. It was simply that I always thought of the Happy trails son as a 'cowboy' song and when I think of cowboys, I think of Sally Starr, although the song belongs to Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, who were not a New Jersey celebrities, as Sally Starr most certainly was. By the way, the song was written by Dale Evans.
Anyhow I like the lyrics and here they are:
Happy trails to you, until we meet again.
Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
Happy trails to you, 'till we meet again.
Some trails are happy ones,
Others are blue.
It's the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here's a happy one for you.
Happy trails to you, until we meet again.
Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
Happy trails to you, 'till we meet again.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcYsO890YJY
(Here's a link to youtube where you can hear Roy Rogers and Dale Evans sing this song.)
(Maybe hiking every day at Big Timber Creek, site of the former Slimm's Ranch, has put me in a cowboy mood.)
Anyhow I like the lyrics and here they are:
Happy trails to you, until we meet again.
Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
Happy trails to you, 'till we meet again.
Some trails are happy ones,
Others are blue.
It's the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here's a happy one for you.
Happy trails to you, until we meet again.
Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
Happy trails to you, 'till we meet again.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcYsO890YJY
(Here's a link to youtube where you can hear Roy Rogers and Dale Evans sing this song.)
(Maybe hiking every day at Big Timber Creek, site of the former Slimm's Ranch, has put me in a cowboy mood.)
Sugar Hill Inn, Mays Landing, NJ
I hope any of my readers out there who are mothers had a happy day on Sunday! My daughter came home from Brooklyn and she, my sister (her godmother) and I all took my favorite route to the seashore, Rt. 559 which runs through Mays Landing, and passes the beautiful Lake Lenape and the interesting and long abandoned mill on the lake. This road is never busy even in the thick of the summer traffic to Ocean City. It is a quiet shady little road that runs past the Winding River, several campgrounds, golf courses and eventually comes in the back end of Somer's Point, an interesting historical spot on its own. I always look for the Somers Mansion when I approach the bridge to Ocean City.
Speaking of the bridge to Ocean City - it has been replaced by a large expansive causeway but I will always miss the litttle opening bridge of my childhood. We would sit in a long stream of traffic, entranced (we children, that is) as the center of the bridge opened to allow tall masted boats to pass through, of which, in those days there were quite a few more than there are now. I am speaking of the first decade of the 1950's.
Anyhow to back up several miles to the beginning of the trip, I will paste here the description of the history of the Sugar Hill Inn, along with its link so that if you find yourself traveling that quiet backway to Ocean City, you, too, can enjoy a delicious meal there.
http://www.innatsugarhill.com/history.html
Speaking of the bridge to Ocean City - it has been replaced by a large expansive causeway but I will always miss the litttle opening bridge of my childhood. We would sit in a long stream of traffic, entranced (we children, that is) as the center of the bridge opened to allow tall masted boats to pass through, of which, in those days there were quite a few more than there are now. I am speaking of the first decade of the 1950's.
Anyhow to back up several miles to the beginning of the trip, I will paste here the description of the history of the Sugar Hill Inn, along with its link so that if you find yourself traveling that quiet backway to Ocean City, you, too, can enjoy a delicious meal there.
http://www.innatsugarhill.com/history.html
"Mays Landings history has always been tied to the Great Egg Harbor River. In the mid 1700’s George May, a ship builder and black smith, sailed up the river and established a ship building business and ship’s store on the uplands adjacent to Babcock’s Creek. One of the vessels built at Mays Landing during that time was the schooner “License” built for Captain John Pennington. Early papers tell of the “License” bringing a load of sugar back from the West Indies to “May’s Place” with the sweet cargo being stored on “the high banks of the river next to Babcock’s Creek”. That grassy knoll, on which the Inn now sits, has been referred to as “Sugar Hill” from that day to the present.
During the Revolutionary War, Mays Landing became a bustling port for goods bound for Philadelphia. Sugar, molasses and rum were stored on this site awaiting shipment, while charcoal, iron ore and lumber were loaded for export. The war for independence gave birth to another thriving business along the river, privateering. Many captured British ships were brought to “The Landing” to have their captured cargo sold. The New Jersey State Gazette reported that on June 23rd, 1779 an open boat called “The Skunk”, commanded by Captain Samuel Snell, a Mays Landing tavern owner, nicknamed “The Hero of Sugar Hill” captured nineteenth prize off Cape May and moored in the Egg Harbor River to have her valuable cargo sold. The Skunk’s success was one of surprise having a crew of just twelve men and only two cannons concealed in her stern. Upon one occasion, just inside the Egg Harbor inlet, “The Skunk” set her sights on what was thought to be a fine merchant ship. Captain Snell turned his little ship’s stern to the enemy and then gave them a gun. A momentary pause ensued and immediately, the merchant ship was transformed into a British 74 and gave “The Skunk” such a broadside, that it was reported “the water flew around them like ten thousand whale-spouts!” She was cut some in her sails and rigging, but by hard rowing, made her escape to shallow water while the captain shouted, “Lay low boys… lay low for your lives!”
After winning the fight for independence in 1776, Mays Landing continued to grow as a shipbuilding center. During the early to mid 1800’s there were over 100 sailing vessels built at Mays Landing. George Wheaton’s Shipyard turned out over two-dozen schooners, some with lengths greater than 100 feet. In 1845 William Moore came to Mays Landing to manage Weymouth Furnace. It was on the grassy knoll; known as Sugar Hill, that William Moore built his private residence in 1846. Captured by the lure of the river, Mr. Moore became involved in the “building and sailing of vessels”. He eventually owned and managed a small fleet of schooners involved in trade from New York to South America. With his election to Congress in 1867, Mr. Moore enlarged his home to include larger cooking and dining facilities, four guest bedrooms and a large Victorian veranda so that he could sit and gaze upon his beloved Egg Harbor River. At his funeral in 1876, which was held at his home, several of his casket bearers were listed as “sea captains” and “sail makers”.
For the next 90 years or so the “Moore Villa”, as it was commonly known, was home to several generations of the Abbott Family. The Abbott’s were a well to-do family that owned the general store in town. Their children were area lawyers, dentists and a Civil War chaplain. In the early 1900’s the front parlor room even served as a dentist's office. In the 1950’s the house was sold to Frank and Ella Watson, who were involved in small boat building and racing on the river.
In 1986 the house was sold to Larry and Tina Boylan. Who, along with Larry's two brothers, restored the old “Moore Villa” opening it to the public in 1987 as “The Inn at Sugar Hill” a riverfront country inn and restaurant. To this day, the Inn continues to greet the weary travelers with old world hospitality and provide them with “a hot meal, a cold drink and a warm bed”, whether they come by land… or sea. The Inn’s docks are currently the homeport for “Grace”, the innkeeper’s traditional looking, cutter-rigged Gozzard sailboat, which can be chartered by The Inn's guests for river sunset cruises during select times of the year. Since becoming an Innkeeper, Larry Boylan has obtained a U. S. Coast Guard Near Coastal Captain’s license, “just in case privateering makes a come back!” laughs Boylan. History does repeat itself! "
For several years, I passed the Sugar Hill Inn, wishing I could stop in and enjoy a dinner or a lunch, but I never got the right time or season, however, in the past two years, my retirement allows better timing and I was able to have my birthday dinner there and two Mother's Day lunches. The food was very good and reasonable and if you make a reservation (which I did not) there are tables near a delightful view of the river. The others room have a warm period charm as well. It is a bed and breakfast, so if you stop in at the bar after a long day at the shore and want to stay overnight, what a delightful place to do that. Someday I may do that for my birthday, or even for Mother's Day!
Enjoy and as always Happy Trails! Jo Ann
ps.I should have done a memorial blog for Sally Star who passed away this year, but maybe I can do that later.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Reading List for very local history
If you wait long enough, your next subject to study will come to you, slinking up beside you like a beast in the forest, ready to domesticate itself.
Yesterday, I spent a delightful afternoon, the first after a long dry spell, immersed in my local history books. By local, I mean Camden County, and since I'm hiking Big Timber Creek and live not 4 miles from the park there, I'm counting Gloucester County as local. The tie in, other than the dog park and my daily meditation walk beside the Big Timber Creek, is my family history, which I have mentioned many times before, the Cheesman, Garwood lines converge on the Big Timber Creek.
What's on my bookshelf:
1.Camden County, New Jersey 1616-1976 A Narrative History, Dorwart and Mackey
2.Waterways of Camden County, Farr
3.The History of the Township of Gloucester 1695-2003, Fox, Thompson, Kaitz
4.Rambles through Old Highways and Byways of West Jersey, Boyer
5.The Early Dutch and Swedish Settlers of New Jersey, Leiby
6.South Jersey Towns, McMahon
7.Old Mills of Camden County, Boyer (my most recent purchase $5 at Cam.Co.Hist.Society, Camden, NJ)
8.Old Inns and Taverns in West Jersey, Boyer
9.Camden County, NJ, Dorwart
10.A Teacher's Guide to the Watersheds of Camden County (an invaluable resource that I bought at one of the annual C.C.H.S.L. book sales in the spring of the year - I use it regularly and tried to buy another but no luck.)
11.History on the Brink: An Inventory of Historic Sites and Towns in SJ, Seiter (for SJ Tourism Corp.)
12.Gloucester County in the Eighteen Fifties: Being the Diary of John Cawman Eastlack
This is only my local history collection. I have another set of half a dozen rare books on the iron towns of the pines including the hard to find Martha Diary. And, I have a half dozen books on the Whitall House and Battle of Red Bank.
My interest blinks like a firefly on a summer evening. Something, a visit, or a conversation, or some newly discovered item of family history, will send me feverishly scurrying from attic to den in search of books on the Wharton family, or lighthouses, or Port Norris, and I'll soon be buried on the sofa between stacks of books with several in the mail from amazon.com.
I LOVE books. I'll never be an e-book reader. I want to highlight and post-it-note pertinent pages. I want to rest the book on my quilt at night and read until I fall asleep with the book quietly lying like a fallen tombstone over my chest. I want to ramble from book to book and make notes in the margins. My books become like my friends, some I've had since grade school. My oldest book, I've had since before I started school. I think I blogged about that one before, it is my Hall and Brumbaugh Reader, which I bought at Leary's Book Store in Philadelphia - my first book purchase - what a thrill!
And it is still a thrill to buy a book and to browse the musty shelves of my favorite old book stores such as Murphy's Book Barn in Mullica Hill, which I am happy to say was saved from closing and is still nestled between the church and the carriage house off the main street of town.
One thing I must do before I perish is make a list and an inventory so my daughter and sister will know where to donate sections of my collections. I also have a collection of Revolutionary War history and Civil War history.
I donated most of my Women's History collection to the Paulsdale Library some years back.
Now, I'm going to close so I can read the Eastlack diary. I have a special fondness for diaries of all kinds.
Perhaps you recall that I'm indexing the diary of Ruth Page Rogers in my volunteer work at the Gloucester County Historical Society. It is my third diary project for them. Whenever I look things up on the computer, I think of the many people, like myself and my fellow volunteers working away in historical societies and other venues, putting all this data on the computer for those who will follow us.
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
ps.I'd like to hear from some of you who are reading this. Stats tell me 23,000 have visited, 13 are regulars and I have more than a dozen visits a day! Tell me what's on your book shelves! Or if that's too many - what do you have on SJ History that is interesting and perhaps rare? You can contact me by e-mail if comments is too difficult wrightj45@yahoo.com
Yesterday, I spent a delightful afternoon, the first after a long dry spell, immersed in my local history books. By local, I mean Camden County, and since I'm hiking Big Timber Creek and live not 4 miles from the park there, I'm counting Gloucester County as local. The tie in, other than the dog park and my daily meditation walk beside the Big Timber Creek, is my family history, which I have mentioned many times before, the Cheesman, Garwood lines converge on the Big Timber Creek.
What's on my bookshelf:
1.Camden County, New Jersey 1616-1976 A Narrative History, Dorwart and Mackey
2.Waterways of Camden County, Farr
3.The History of the Township of Gloucester 1695-2003, Fox, Thompson, Kaitz
4.Rambles through Old Highways and Byways of West Jersey, Boyer
5.The Early Dutch and Swedish Settlers of New Jersey, Leiby
6.South Jersey Towns, McMahon
7.Old Mills of Camden County, Boyer (my most recent purchase $5 at Cam.Co.Hist.Society, Camden, NJ)
8.Old Inns and Taverns in West Jersey, Boyer
9.Camden County, NJ, Dorwart
10.A Teacher's Guide to the Watersheds of Camden County (an invaluable resource that I bought at one of the annual C.C.H.S.L. book sales in the spring of the year - I use it regularly and tried to buy another but no luck.)
11.History on the Brink: An Inventory of Historic Sites and Towns in SJ, Seiter (for SJ Tourism Corp.)
12.Gloucester County in the Eighteen Fifties: Being the Diary of John Cawman Eastlack
This is only my local history collection. I have another set of half a dozen rare books on the iron towns of the pines including the hard to find Martha Diary. And, I have a half dozen books on the Whitall House and Battle of Red Bank.
My interest blinks like a firefly on a summer evening. Something, a visit, or a conversation, or some newly discovered item of family history, will send me feverishly scurrying from attic to den in search of books on the Wharton family, or lighthouses, or Port Norris, and I'll soon be buried on the sofa between stacks of books with several in the mail from amazon.com.
I LOVE books. I'll never be an e-book reader. I want to highlight and post-it-note pertinent pages. I want to rest the book on my quilt at night and read until I fall asleep with the book quietly lying like a fallen tombstone over my chest. I want to ramble from book to book and make notes in the margins. My books become like my friends, some I've had since grade school. My oldest book, I've had since before I started school. I think I blogged about that one before, it is my Hall and Brumbaugh Reader, which I bought at Leary's Book Store in Philadelphia - my first book purchase - what a thrill!
And it is still a thrill to buy a book and to browse the musty shelves of my favorite old book stores such as Murphy's Book Barn in Mullica Hill, which I am happy to say was saved from closing and is still nestled between the church and the carriage house off the main street of town.
One thing I must do before I perish is make a list and an inventory so my daughter and sister will know where to donate sections of my collections. I also have a collection of Revolutionary War history and Civil War history.
I donated most of my Women's History collection to the Paulsdale Library some years back.
Now, I'm going to close so I can read the Eastlack diary. I have a special fondness for diaries of all kinds.
Perhaps you recall that I'm indexing the diary of Ruth Page Rogers in my volunteer work at the Gloucester County Historical Society. It is my third diary project for them. Whenever I look things up on the computer, I think of the many people, like myself and my fellow volunteers working away in historical societies and other venues, putting all this data on the computer for those who will follow us.
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
ps.I'd like to hear from some of you who are reading this. Stats tell me 23,000 have visited, 13 are regulars and I have more than a dozen visits a day! Tell me what's on your book shelves! Or if that's too many - what do you have on SJ History that is interesting and perhaps rare? You can contact me by e-mail if comments is too difficult wrightj45@yahoo.com
Friday, May 10, 2013
Timber Creek
It is no doubt obvious to most, but nonetheless a reason for wonderment, at least to me, how experience and knowledge branch out, intersect, diverge, then cross over one another again.
Every day, I walk for 2 hours at Timber Creek to enjoy the dog park and the dog pond and the ridge bridle path beside the Timber Creek.
Long ago, in doing family history research, I had discovered that on my mother's side, we were descended from early settlers in the Blackwood/Turnersville area. My mother's great-grandfather, William C. Garwood, whose ancestors were from the Haddonfield area, had married the only surviving daughter of Major Peter T. Cheesman, Rachel Ann Cheesman.
At Gloucester County Historical Society, I had found a fascinating book of research on the Cheesman line with a page on the inheritance made to Rachel Ann Cheesman's children because she was dead at the time of the bequest. The poor young woman had two children, Sarah, and Joseph, and then died in her twenties. Additional research showed that Joseph had also died young in an accident involving his wagon, leaving his and Patience Ann (Watson) Garwood's son, William C. Garwood to be raised by his grandfather of the same name.
The grandfather, William C. Garwood, born in Haddonfield, had been a teacher at the Turner school in Turnersville, and also a storekeeper. He had also farmed and by the time he was raising his grandson, he was back to farming.
The Cheesman family had at least three mills on the Timber Creek, a sawmill, and two gristmills, during the 1800's, the heyday of mills.
I just learned how the clearing of the dense, original, native forest, to make farm land went hand in hand with the creating of sawmills and the making of profit from the wood. So those energetic and probably somewhat desperate first settlers, had to set about with their hand tools, cutting the trees to make their homes, and clearing the land to make the farms, then selling the wood to other markets for money to live on while the farms were becoming profitable. So, naturally, next came the creating of mills to garner better profit from cut and sawn board-wood and wood products such as shingles, rather than from rough logs, They also needed the mills to refine the grain crops into flour and also for sale of surplus in other markets - specifically, Philadelphia.
I learned a lot about the early mills on the Timber Creek, and the shipbuilding and other industries in that area from an excellent paper written by Laura Iannacone, presented to the Gloucester County Historical Society in 1991. I found it on Thursday when I was doing my volunteer work there and was idly thumbing through the Timber Creek file in the cabinets.
It was so interesting, it propelled me out to my car today to go to the Camden County Historical Society to buy Charles Boyer's book on the Old Mills of Camden County. In Boyer's book there is actually a photo of a Cheesman Mill.
I'm guessing the mill was located down Lower Landing Rd. somewhere. I haven't figured out the exact location yet, though the information is there for the solving of the mystery.
Although I have read a lot and attended many lectures on the Revolution, it is increasingly brought home to me how the pressure of the English merchants on the politicians in England to keep colonists from expanding their industry and selling their products, such as cloth, for example, made the groundswell that eventuated in war.
These laws directly impacted these struggling settlers who were literally working their fingers to the bone to make products and create profit from their industry.
The paper by Ms. Iannacone is entitled THE ORIGIN OF COMMERCE ON TIMBER CREEK. It is well worth the visiting GCHSL to read it.
It is the second time I have been driven to the files to read up on Colonial industry and found excellent works of research by generous and hard-working researchers. The last time, it was the making of bricks that drew my attention, and on that subject, My Iannacone's paper mentions a brick making concern along the Timber Creek as well. And there was shipbuilding, the Brewers' shipyard. In fact, an interesting item was that Brewer contributed the stone quarried from Ridley Creek, and brought up the Timber Creek by his boats, that was used in St. John's Episcopal Chruch on Chews Landing Rd.. The value would have been equal to a $5000. donation in value of that period.
While at the Trenton State Archives these past two weeks, I have been researching Patience Ann Watson and Rachel Ann Cheesman, after all, it is Mother's Day, and these women are my ancestors and the connection to the Big Timber Creek area.
Often, when I was still working as a teacher in the Gloucester City schools, I would drive, on lunch and prep break, to various places along the Delaware River and one of the spots was the place where the Timber Creek comes out of the Delaware. I was interested in where the original Fort Nassau might have been located. I never dreamed, at that time, that the Timber Creek flowed alongside the hsitory of my mother's side of the family.
Family history and local history enrich one another like marl on farm fields.
Happy Mother's Day - give a kindly thought to your female ancestors this weekend! Jo Ann
Every day, I walk for 2 hours at Timber Creek to enjoy the dog park and the dog pond and the ridge bridle path beside the Timber Creek.
Long ago, in doing family history research, I had discovered that on my mother's side, we were descended from early settlers in the Blackwood/Turnersville area. My mother's great-grandfather, William C. Garwood, whose ancestors were from the Haddonfield area, had married the only surviving daughter of Major Peter T. Cheesman, Rachel Ann Cheesman.
At Gloucester County Historical Society, I had found a fascinating book of research on the Cheesman line with a page on the inheritance made to Rachel Ann Cheesman's children because she was dead at the time of the bequest. The poor young woman had two children, Sarah, and Joseph, and then died in her twenties. Additional research showed that Joseph had also died young in an accident involving his wagon, leaving his and Patience Ann (Watson) Garwood's son, William C. Garwood to be raised by his grandfather of the same name.
The grandfather, William C. Garwood, born in Haddonfield, had been a teacher at the Turner school in Turnersville, and also a storekeeper. He had also farmed and by the time he was raising his grandson, he was back to farming.
The Cheesman family had at least three mills on the Timber Creek, a sawmill, and two gristmills, during the 1800's, the heyday of mills.
I just learned how the clearing of the dense, original, native forest, to make farm land went hand in hand with the creating of sawmills and the making of profit from the wood. So those energetic and probably somewhat desperate first settlers, had to set about with their hand tools, cutting the trees to make their homes, and clearing the land to make the farms, then selling the wood to other markets for money to live on while the farms were becoming profitable. So, naturally, next came the creating of mills to garner better profit from cut and sawn board-wood and wood products such as shingles, rather than from rough logs, They also needed the mills to refine the grain crops into flour and also for sale of surplus in other markets - specifically, Philadelphia.
I learned a lot about the early mills on the Timber Creek, and the shipbuilding and other industries in that area from an excellent paper written by Laura Iannacone, presented to the Gloucester County Historical Society in 1991. I found it on Thursday when I was doing my volunteer work there and was idly thumbing through the Timber Creek file in the cabinets.
It was so interesting, it propelled me out to my car today to go to the Camden County Historical Society to buy Charles Boyer's book on the Old Mills of Camden County. In Boyer's book there is actually a photo of a Cheesman Mill.
I'm guessing the mill was located down Lower Landing Rd. somewhere. I haven't figured out the exact location yet, though the information is there for the solving of the mystery.
Although I have read a lot and attended many lectures on the Revolution, it is increasingly brought home to me how the pressure of the English merchants on the politicians in England to keep colonists from expanding their industry and selling their products, such as cloth, for example, made the groundswell that eventuated in war.
These laws directly impacted these struggling settlers who were literally working their fingers to the bone to make products and create profit from their industry.
The paper by Ms. Iannacone is entitled THE ORIGIN OF COMMERCE ON TIMBER CREEK. It is well worth the visiting GCHSL to read it.
It is the second time I have been driven to the files to read up on Colonial industry and found excellent works of research by generous and hard-working researchers. The last time, it was the making of bricks that drew my attention, and on that subject, My Iannacone's paper mentions a brick making concern along the Timber Creek as well. And there was shipbuilding, the Brewers' shipyard. In fact, an interesting item was that Brewer contributed the stone quarried from Ridley Creek, and brought up the Timber Creek by his boats, that was used in St. John's Episcopal Chruch on Chews Landing Rd.. The value would have been equal to a $5000. donation in value of that period.
While at the Trenton State Archives these past two weeks, I have been researching Patience Ann Watson and Rachel Ann Cheesman, after all, it is Mother's Day, and these women are my ancestors and the connection to the Big Timber Creek area.
Often, when I was still working as a teacher in the Gloucester City schools, I would drive, on lunch and prep break, to various places along the Delaware River and one of the spots was the place where the Timber Creek comes out of the Delaware. I was interested in where the original Fort Nassau might have been located. I never dreamed, at that time, that the Timber Creek flowed alongside the hsitory of my mother's side of the family.
Family history and local history enrich one another like marl on farm fields.
Happy Mother's Day - give a kindly thought to your female ancestors this weekend! Jo Ann
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Cheesmanville
Once again, with my friend Barbara Solem, this time in the company of a friend of hers who is a photographer, we headed up to the Trenton State Archives. A lady named Sherry, the librarian in charge of the room where I was working, was very helpful and again, I caught three good pieces of family information. I'm beginning to get the hang of it. I found Peter T. Cheesman's marriage record to Sarah Smallwood (with Sherry's help, it goes without saying) and I found records for William C. Garwood and Rachel Ann Cheesman and their marriage. Smallwood is another of those old old names you run across regularly when you look into the history of this part of South Jersey (the Camden County/Gloucester Twp., Big Timber Creek/Newton Creek area).
Barbara and her photographer friend, Al, were taking pictures of old photographs and maps of Batsto and environs. She has been taking meetings gathering background on Batsto recently and also met with Bud Wilson, archaeologist extraordinaire! He is not only deeply knowledgeable, he is famously generous with help and information sharing. He is beloved by many.
While organizing my scattered family history files, I ran across a piece of information I had found and lost on Cheesmanville. You may think the only 'lost villages' are in the pines, but in fact that have sprung up and vanished all around in SJ. I'd love to hear of any you might know about.
Take Old Upton for example. That was a very old name and yet no one knows of it now. The triangle of land from Cross Keys, to Sicklerville, to Turnersville, is the area once known as Cheesmanville. One son ran a sawmille, one son ran a gristmill and five other sons farmed land in the vicinity. The Smallwood family also held extensive farm land in the area. This land was in the junction of the "Big and Little Lebanon" branches of the Big Timber Creek area.
I have downloaded a watershed map of the Big Timber Creek but it is illegible. I'll have to do more research on this as time goes by. This information on Cheesmanville came from ancestry.com back in 2011. If anyone out there is a Cheesman/Garwood relation and or has information on these families or would like to share what I have, you can reach me at wrightj45@yahoo.com.
There is an extensive amount of work done on the Cheesman family in a red book at the Gloucester County Historical Society Library, gathered by Albert Stirling Adams and published in the 1980's. I don't know where I would have started without it. An while I'm on the subject of gratitude, thanks to all the tireless and generous volunteers who put data from cards and books into the computer so that we can all share it!
One of my sisters is researching the Wright/Sandman/Young side of the family (English and German) while i research the Cheesman/Garwood side (English in origin and Quaker by religion). I will later tackle, one more time, the McQuiston/Johnston branches (Scots Irish who came here via Londonderry). Families are like watersheds in the way they branch out and I love the context of history that they illuminate and make personal.
Barbara and her photographer friend, Al, were taking pictures of old photographs and maps of Batsto and environs. She has been taking meetings gathering background on Batsto recently and also met with Bud Wilson, archaeologist extraordinaire! He is not only deeply knowledgeable, he is famously generous with help and information sharing. He is beloved by many.
While organizing my scattered family history files, I ran across a piece of information I had found and lost on Cheesmanville. You may think the only 'lost villages' are in the pines, but in fact that have sprung up and vanished all around in SJ. I'd love to hear of any you might know about.
Take Old Upton for example. That was a very old name and yet no one knows of it now. The triangle of land from Cross Keys, to Sicklerville, to Turnersville, is the area once known as Cheesmanville. One son ran a sawmille, one son ran a gristmill and five other sons farmed land in the vicinity. The Smallwood family also held extensive farm land in the area. This land was in the junction of the "Big and Little Lebanon" branches of the Big Timber Creek area.
I have downloaded a watershed map of the Big Timber Creek but it is illegible. I'll have to do more research on this as time goes by. This information on Cheesmanville came from ancestry.com back in 2011. If anyone out there is a Cheesman/Garwood relation and or has information on these families or would like to share what I have, you can reach me at wrightj45@yahoo.com.
There is an extensive amount of work done on the Cheesman family in a red book at the Gloucester County Historical Society Library, gathered by Albert Stirling Adams and published in the 1980's. I don't know where I would have started without it. An while I'm on the subject of gratitude, thanks to all the tireless and generous volunteers who put data from cards and books into the computer so that we can all share it!
One of my sisters is researching the Wright/Sandman/Young side of the family (English and German) while i research the Cheesman/Garwood side (English in origin and Quaker by religion). I will later tackle, one more time, the McQuiston/Johnston branches (Scots Irish who came here via Londonderry). Families are like watersheds in the way they branch out and I love the context of history that they illuminate and make personal.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Yellow Fever
One of the places I still work as a volunteer is the James and Ann Whitall House at Red Bank Battlefield, National Park, NJ. I also continue to volunteer at Gloucester County Historical Society Library in Woodbury. I'll take a little digression here to tell you what I do in these places: At Whitall House, I am a docent, mainly on the special event days once a month during the season from May through December. Our upcoming event is the Herb Festival on the 19th. The special event days are always Sundays. On the 23rd, all the docents who are interested will also be taking training on our newly opened upstairs bedroom.
If you have visited the house in the past and wondered about the upstairs, which has never been open to the public before, here is your chance. The upstairs has now been certified as safe for visitors (not safe so much for the people but for the house itself which dates back to 1749 and needs protection from wear and tear and the weight of hundres of visitors.)
The upstairs bedroom will feature a discussion yellow fever because the main household member featured in the history of Red Bank Battlefield, is Ann Whitall who stayed in the house during the battle and nursed the wounded in her house afterwards. I know there is controversy in regard to this history, but so far, we have been convinced this is accurate. It is in Job Whitall's diary that the family returned to the house and were there during the battle. Oral history has it that Ann was a notable herbal healer and being a Quaker, would have helped those in need and did so with the wounded Hessians.
Eventually, Ann Whitall, too, succumbed. She died in 1797 during the yellow fever epidemic which spread from Philadelphia across the Delaware River to NJ.
It is said that mosquitos carrying the disease came up the river with refugees from the Carribbean where a civil war/revolt was taking place. Ann had lived a long life; she was 81 when she died. Her husband lived on after her death.
What brought this to mind was an article in the Sunday, May 5th Courier Post, in the South Jersey Living Section, under ARTS, entitled "Recalling an epidemic." The article talks about an exhibition on the Yellow fever epidemic which is in the Emlen Physick House in Philadelphia. Ten percent of the inhabitants in Philadelphia died between August 1 and November 9 of 1793, around 5000 people. The article didn't give statistics on the effect on the people of New Jersey, but those who are familiar with our history know that the ferry boats plied back and forth across the river from NJ to Phila. from numerous points. The Cooper family, of which Ann Cooper Whitall is a descendant, had ferryservices and a tavern in Camden. Remember, water wasys were the highways of the period.
Cape May visitors will wonder about the connection to the Emlen Physick Estate in Dape May. That man was the grandson of Philadelphia's Emlen Physick.
Yellow Fever still exists and the article said 200,00 cases per year spring up mostly in the African countries of Rwanda and Sierra. There is a vaccine for the fever now. The reason it was called "Yellow Fever" is that it caused liver failure and jaundice which turned people's skin and the whites of their eyes yellow. Dr. Emlen Physick was killed by the disease.
For more, either visit the Physick house or read the book "Bring Out Your Dead" which is in my library and I highly recommend it as readable and interesting.
If you have visited the house in the past and wondered about the upstairs, which has never been open to the public before, here is your chance. The upstairs has now been certified as safe for visitors (not safe so much for the people but for the house itself which dates back to 1749 and needs protection from wear and tear and the weight of hundres of visitors.)
The upstairs bedroom will feature a discussion yellow fever because the main household member featured in the history of Red Bank Battlefield, is Ann Whitall who stayed in the house during the battle and nursed the wounded in her house afterwards. I know there is controversy in regard to this history, but so far, we have been convinced this is accurate. It is in Job Whitall's diary that the family returned to the house and were there during the battle. Oral history has it that Ann was a notable herbal healer and being a Quaker, would have helped those in need and did so with the wounded Hessians.
Eventually, Ann Whitall, too, succumbed. She died in 1797 during the yellow fever epidemic which spread from Philadelphia across the Delaware River to NJ.
It is said that mosquitos carrying the disease came up the river with refugees from the Carribbean where a civil war/revolt was taking place. Ann had lived a long life; she was 81 when she died. Her husband lived on after her death.
What brought this to mind was an article in the Sunday, May 5th Courier Post, in the South Jersey Living Section, under ARTS, entitled "Recalling an epidemic." The article talks about an exhibition on the Yellow fever epidemic which is in the Emlen Physick House in Philadelphia. Ten percent of the inhabitants in Philadelphia died between August 1 and November 9 of 1793, around 5000 people. The article didn't give statistics on the effect on the people of New Jersey, but those who are familiar with our history know that the ferry boats plied back and forth across the river from NJ to Phila. from numerous points. The Cooper family, of which Ann Cooper Whitall is a descendant, had ferryservices and a tavern in Camden. Remember, water wasys were the highways of the period.
Cape May visitors will wonder about the connection to the Emlen Physick Estate in Dape May. That man was the grandson of Philadelphia's Emlen Physick.
Yellow Fever still exists and the article said 200,00 cases per year spring up mostly in the African countries of Rwanda and Sierra. There is a vaccine for the fever now. The reason it was called "Yellow Fever" is that it caused liver failure and jaundice which turned people's skin and the whites of their eyes yellow. Dr. Emlen Physick was killed by the disease.
For more, either visit the Physick house or read the book "Bring Out Your Dead" which is in my library and I highly recommend it as readable and interesting.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Trenton State Archives
On Monday, April 29th, Barbara Solem and I went to the Trenton State Archives. She was doing research on Batsto and I was doing family history. Barbara is coordinating docents for tours of the Atsion Mansion and has written the tour script and trained the volunteers for the past two years. She has been a tireless promoter of the history of the pines.
She had better luck than I did and found many boxes of fascinating photographs of Batsto and environs.
I was still tracking the elusive William C. Garwood who married Rachel Ann Cheesman, the only surviviing daughter of the prominent Major Peter T. Cheesman (the major was from his service in the War of 1812). The Cheesman family were big land holders at one time in the watershed of the Big Timber Creek, with at least 3 mills and numerous descendants farming the land all around the creek. William C. Garwood came as a schoolteacher and boarded with the Cheesman family, married Rachel Ann, had two children, then she died. Her daughter Sarah Garwood married Robert Jaggard. The Jaggard family also had some prominence in the Blackwood area. Joseph Franklin Garwood married Patience Ann Watson and their son, William C. Garwood was raised by his grandfather after his parents died in his early childhood.
As with many another thing in life, the more you know, the more questions are raised. Sometimes I feel like a dope when I go to the Archives, and that is the only place I feel dumb. I have three college degrees and college always made me feel smart. But I seem to be foggy when I get to the archives, although it may be that increased exposure gives you the experience you need to find out what you are looking for and how to get it. I should make a serious set of questions before my next trip there.
One very adept and knowledgeable librarian there, named Betty, helped me find a half dozen pieces of good information which I have brought home and plan to work on before my next trip there.
By the way, it is FREE and so is the parking. Anyone else out there working on local family history?
Jo Ann
She had better luck than I did and found many boxes of fascinating photographs of Batsto and environs.
I was still tracking the elusive William C. Garwood who married Rachel Ann Cheesman, the only surviviing daughter of the prominent Major Peter T. Cheesman (the major was from his service in the War of 1812). The Cheesman family were big land holders at one time in the watershed of the Big Timber Creek, with at least 3 mills and numerous descendants farming the land all around the creek. William C. Garwood came as a schoolteacher and boarded with the Cheesman family, married Rachel Ann, had two children, then she died. Her daughter Sarah Garwood married Robert Jaggard. The Jaggard family also had some prominence in the Blackwood area. Joseph Franklin Garwood married Patience Ann Watson and their son, William C. Garwood was raised by his grandfather after his parents died in his early childhood.
As with many another thing in life, the more you know, the more questions are raised. Sometimes I feel like a dope when I go to the Archives, and that is the only place I feel dumb. I have three college degrees and college always made me feel smart. But I seem to be foggy when I get to the archives, although it may be that increased exposure gives you the experience you need to find out what you are looking for and how to get it. I should make a serious set of questions before my next trip there.
One very adept and knowledgeable librarian there, named Betty, helped me find a half dozen pieces of good information which I have brought home and plan to work on before my next trip there.
By the way, it is FREE and so is the parking. Anyone else out there working on local family history?
Jo Ann
Monday, April 29, 2013
Estell Manor Hiking
What wonderful weather for hiking! However, I must say it is time to SPRAY!
Yesterday, a friend, Barbara Spector and I and, of course, Trixie, hiked at Estell Manor in Atlantic County. We stopped at Wawa for lunch supplies for a picnic at Lake Lenape near Mays Landing. I would love to know more about the abandoned mill there, and even more, to explore it!
Estell Manor was wonderful. We stopped to look at Stephen's Creek from the boardwalk trail which was heavily damaged in the super storm and is in the process of being repaired.
We were very happy to see a big Birthday Party in the large group area in the parking section of the entrance. What a great way for a big family to have a party and a reunion at the same time. The kids were delirious with joy and the parents were grilling and chilling and it made us happy to see them.
Lots of people were on the trails that day, bicycling and hiking. That's always gratifying.
For info on camping at Lake Lenape call 609-625-8219. For general Atlantic County Parks info go to www.aclink.org/PARKS
Today, I'm off to the Trenton State Archives, with Barbara Solem, my other hiking buddy, to do some research on my family history. On my mother's side, there is a long trail back to New Jersey from Philadelphia, where I was born. The names associated with my mother's ancestry are Cheesman, Garwood, and Jaggard - all very interesting and prominent families in the Blackwood, Turnersville, Timber Creek area.
My search started at the Gloucester County Historical Society Library. Of course, it started years ago with my grandmothers, but then I was helped on immeasureably by ancestry.com, and a distant cousin on the Jaggard side who had done a lot of work already, and, next, hands on searches at Camden County Historical Society in Camden and GCHSL. I have graphed out two interesting trees and found lots of information, but I've been stalled for a couple of years at 'lost links' spots on both sides - William C. Garwood on my mother's side. He married Rachel Ann Cheesman and made the Cheesman Garwood link, and the Wrights of Indiana on my father's side. But like the tides, the interest comes and goes. William C. Garwood (the eldest of two of the same name, grandfather and grandson) was a schoolteacher at Turnersville, and a postmaster at Blackwood.
Meanwhile, I hike and the woods restore my spirit! Spots I love at Estell are the Smith/Ireland cemetery (with brand new imposing wrought iron fencing) and the ruins of the Belcoville plant of 1917, and always, the glimmer of Stephen's Creek wherever I see it along the trail.
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
Yesterday, a friend, Barbara Spector and I and, of course, Trixie, hiked at Estell Manor in Atlantic County. We stopped at Wawa for lunch supplies for a picnic at Lake Lenape near Mays Landing. I would love to know more about the abandoned mill there, and even more, to explore it!
Estell Manor was wonderful. We stopped to look at Stephen's Creek from the boardwalk trail which was heavily damaged in the super storm and is in the process of being repaired.
We were very happy to see a big Birthday Party in the large group area in the parking section of the entrance. What a great way for a big family to have a party and a reunion at the same time. The kids were delirious with joy and the parents were grilling and chilling and it made us happy to see them.
Lots of people were on the trails that day, bicycling and hiking. That's always gratifying.
For info on camping at Lake Lenape call 609-625-8219. For general Atlantic County Parks info go to www.aclink.org/PARKS
Today, I'm off to the Trenton State Archives, with Barbara Solem, my other hiking buddy, to do some research on my family history. On my mother's side, there is a long trail back to New Jersey from Philadelphia, where I was born. The names associated with my mother's ancestry are Cheesman, Garwood, and Jaggard - all very interesting and prominent families in the Blackwood, Turnersville, Timber Creek area.
My search started at the Gloucester County Historical Society Library. Of course, it started years ago with my grandmothers, but then I was helped on immeasureably by ancestry.com, and a distant cousin on the Jaggard side who had done a lot of work already, and, next, hands on searches at Camden County Historical Society in Camden and GCHSL. I have graphed out two interesting trees and found lots of information, but I've been stalled for a couple of years at 'lost links' spots on both sides - William C. Garwood on my mother's side. He married Rachel Ann Cheesman and made the Cheesman Garwood link, and the Wrights of Indiana on my father's side. But like the tides, the interest comes and goes. William C. Garwood (the eldest of two of the same name, grandfather and grandson) was a schoolteacher at Turnersville, and a postmaster at Blackwood.
Meanwhile, I hike and the woods restore my spirit! Spots I love at Estell are the Smith/Ireland cemetery (with brand new imposing wrought iron fencing) and the ruins of the Belcoville plant of 1917, and always, the glimmer of Stephen's Creek wherever I see it along the trail.
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Quilt Show at the Glo. Co. Hist.Soc. Museum
On Friday, April 26, 2013, three other volunteers from the Whitall House and myself took the self-guided walking tour of Historic Woodbury and ended our tour with the second part of the EXCELLENT Quilt exhibit at the Jessup Hunter Lawrence House on Broad St. which is the Gloucester County Historical Society Museum. Before I forget, here is an upcoming event there:
My Garden of Quilts - Botanical Textiles, Quilt program by Karen Dever plus quilt exhibit Thurs. May 16 at 7:00 p.m.
I will certainly be going there for that. One of the things I admire most at any exhibit at the GCHSM is the level of knowledge and expertise of the curator and the volunteers. On Friday, were were triple lucky in having two GCHSM volunteers join us who gave us additional insights into the needlepoint samplers and the world of quilting. Two other guests that day were expert quilters.
My grandmother was a quilter. I have such wonderful memories of her sewing a quilt stretched out across her bed as the seabreeze blew in the window of her upstairs apartment in Ocean City, NJ. I have two of her quilts but one is disintegrating - a Sunbonnet Babies quilt that I have used since early childhood and washed innumerable times, sadly. Also, I have my great-grandmother's sewing maching which is especially poignant to me as both my great-grand and paternal grandmother supported themselves and their families by sewing when they were widowed.
The day was perfect for a walking tour and I found the buildings connected to the Green family medicinal empire especially interesting. There is the Green carriage house, the Green Laboratory and the Green Castle, a former hotel which now sports ominous red signs with white X's on them. What does that mean? No one we spoke with seemed to know what those signs portend.
Anyone who loves history could weep at the continual destruction of our historic landmarks. The fight goes on. Schools want to take wooded reserves and make soccer fields (Saddler's Woods), and a church wants to take The Green Castle and demolish it for new building.
Ah well, it is best to look at the glass half full and enjoy what we have without becoming too distraught about what we are losing (unless we are willing to get involved in the fight - and I'm too old now and tired).
We had lunch at Charlie Brown's, itself a former historic tavern, and I can most heartily recommend the salad bar which is well known in the area for freshness and variety!
If you are interested in the walking tour, you can get the free booklet, with photos of all the houses and descriptions as well as a map, at the Gloucester County Historical Society Library, which is just behind the Museum and has a parking lot. This is the best time of the year for historic town walks because you can also enjoy the gardens!
Happy Trails!
Jo Ann
ps. Photos were taken and will be added in the new way, as a page added as you scroll down my blog to the bottom.
My Garden of Quilts - Botanical Textiles, Quilt program by Karen Dever plus quilt exhibit Thurs. May 16 at 7:00 p.m.
I will certainly be going there for that. One of the things I admire most at any exhibit at the GCHSM is the level of knowledge and expertise of the curator and the volunteers. On Friday, were were triple lucky in having two GCHSM volunteers join us who gave us additional insights into the needlepoint samplers and the world of quilting. Two other guests that day were expert quilters.
My grandmother was a quilter. I have such wonderful memories of her sewing a quilt stretched out across her bed as the seabreeze blew in the window of her upstairs apartment in Ocean City, NJ. I have two of her quilts but one is disintegrating - a Sunbonnet Babies quilt that I have used since early childhood and washed innumerable times, sadly. Also, I have my great-grandmother's sewing maching which is especially poignant to me as both my great-grand and paternal grandmother supported themselves and their families by sewing when they were widowed.
The day was perfect for a walking tour and I found the buildings connected to the Green family medicinal empire especially interesting. There is the Green carriage house, the Green Laboratory and the Green Castle, a former hotel which now sports ominous red signs with white X's on them. What does that mean? No one we spoke with seemed to know what those signs portend.
Anyone who loves history could weep at the continual destruction of our historic landmarks. The fight goes on. Schools want to take wooded reserves and make soccer fields (Saddler's Woods), and a church wants to take The Green Castle and demolish it for new building.
Ah well, it is best to look at the glass half full and enjoy what we have without becoming too distraught about what we are losing (unless we are willing to get involved in the fight - and I'm too old now and tired).
We had lunch at Charlie Brown's, itself a former historic tavern, and I can most heartily recommend the salad bar which is well known in the area for freshness and variety!
If you are interested in the walking tour, you can get the free booklet, with photos of all the houses and descriptions as well as a map, at the Gloucester County Historical Society Library, which is just behind the Museum and has a parking lot. This is the best time of the year for historic town walks because you can also enjoy the gardens!
Happy Trails!
Jo Ann
ps. Photos were taken and will be added in the new way, as a page added as you scroll down my blog to the bottom.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Pictures 2013
Well, I think I have found a way to circumvent the problem I had with adding pictures (called "gadgets" on this free blog site) to go with my posts. Something had changed in the formatting function and I could not longer add pictures the way I did with my other posts, so I have opted to add a page with pictures on it. The page is called Photographs 2013, and there is a photo of my sister's shrub arrangement at Michleton Library, for her presentation on Landscape Design, a photo of carnivorous plants at Pakim Pond for Earth Day, and there is a picture of my dog Trixie at Timber Creek park, and finally, a photo of my sister, me and my nephew, the day we began working on my garden.
Scross down to the bottom of my opening page and you'll find the page entitled Photographs 2013, along with a page on the James and Ann Whittall House. You can open Photographs 2013 and see the pictures. I'll add new pages for more photographs as they come up to go with new posts. I wish I could move that whole "gadget" up further on the page, but it is beyond my ability to figure out how to do that. Sorry for the inconvenience and I hope you enjoy the photographs.
Speaking of photographs, for my 'birding friends' I wanted to mention that I saw a wild life photographer at Audubon Lake (in Haddon Heights Park) yesterday taking pictures of black cormorants in a tree airing out their wings. The little parks have many wonders to share.
Scross down to the bottom of my opening page and you'll find the page entitled Photographs 2013, along with a page on the James and Ann Whittall House. You can open Photographs 2013 and see the pictures. I'll add new pages for more photographs as they come up to go with new posts. I wish I could move that whole "gadget" up further on the page, but it is beyond my ability to figure out how to do that. Sorry for the inconvenience and I hope you enjoy the photographs.
Speaking of photographs, for my 'birding friends' I wanted to mention that I saw a wild life photographer at Audubon Lake (in Haddon Heights Park) yesterday taking pictures of black cormorants in a tree airing out their wings. The little parks have many wonders to share.
Happy Earth Day 2013
Today, to celebrate Earth Day, my sister and I worked in my garden. Over the past 25 years, I have planted nearly 250 shrubs and trees, but for the past 5 to 10 years, I did almost no gardening at all, however some of my trees have grown enormous!
My sister, Susan is a Landscape Designer and recently did a wonderful presentation at the Mickleton Library on Kings Hwy., which, by the way, is in the process of being closed by the municipality. My sister had always made good use of the library and was happy to give back by doing the excellent presentation. She will miss the Library when it is gone.
The most interesting part of her presentation, to me, was where she had brought a dozen or so potted shrubs which formed a lovely backdrop. She would pull two forward and we could observe that they looked identical, and even though they were in the same family, one might grow 30 feet tall and the other 3 feet tall, which makes a great deal of difference if you are planting in front of your bay window!
In fact, I had planted a lovely little tree next to my outdoor shed, some years back when I still had Christmas trees with root balls. I couldn't bring myself to kill a live tree for a celebration and then put out its dead, dry remnants on the day after Christmas, so I bought trees with roots and planted them. That caused a problem on exceptionally cold winters when the ground froze, but we just decorated the tree with items for whatever holiday came up until the ground thawed out again. One of those trees was a Norwegian Spruce. It is huge and I can't imagine how tall it will become!
Anyhow, we came close to meeting our goal for the gardening of the day, but not quite. We did the mulching of the beds, but didn't get to plant the rest of the Lily of the Valley pips that I had bought from amazon.com.
It came to me that I wanted them when I smelled their fragrance outside the Gloucester County Historical Society Library every spring. They had quite a nice bed of them in the parking lot. I'm a volunteer there.
Master Gardeners from Whitall House generously gave me pots of them from their own gardens and they are coming up, but I wanted MORE. I'll plant the pips tomorrow.
I hope you were outside on this splendid day which couldn't have been a better day to remind us of how wonderful our planet is.
On June 5th, I'll be taking a trip to Bartram's Gardens and Chanticleer with two friends. I'll let you know how that goes.
I haven't visited that many gardens in the past, (Longwood, from time to time, of course) but I go regularly to visit various trees, such as the Salem Oak. Anyhow I did get to see the Doris Duke Gardens (North Central NJ) before they closed and, as you recall, I visited all the State Parks in SJ last year. Some years back, I had ventured further north some years ago and also visited The Great Swamp. This would be a good time of year to go there, while the waters are flowing and the mosquitoes aren't quite out yet. This is a wonderful time of the year to be in any park!
This week I'll be taking a walking tour of historic Woodbury. More on that after Friday, April 26.
Nothing makes me happier than to be outdoors walking in a park or woods. I especially with my canine pal, Trixie Belden. I hope you got outside today too!
My sister, Susan is a Landscape Designer and recently did a wonderful presentation at the Mickleton Library on Kings Hwy., which, by the way, is in the process of being closed by the municipality. My sister had always made good use of the library and was happy to give back by doing the excellent presentation. She will miss the Library when it is gone.
The most interesting part of her presentation, to me, was where she had brought a dozen or so potted shrubs which formed a lovely backdrop. She would pull two forward and we could observe that they looked identical, and even though they were in the same family, one might grow 30 feet tall and the other 3 feet tall, which makes a great deal of difference if you are planting in front of your bay window!
In fact, I had planted a lovely little tree next to my outdoor shed, some years back when I still had Christmas trees with root balls. I couldn't bring myself to kill a live tree for a celebration and then put out its dead, dry remnants on the day after Christmas, so I bought trees with roots and planted them. That caused a problem on exceptionally cold winters when the ground froze, but we just decorated the tree with items for whatever holiday came up until the ground thawed out again. One of those trees was a Norwegian Spruce. It is huge and I can't imagine how tall it will become!
Anyhow, we came close to meeting our goal for the gardening of the day, but not quite. We did the mulching of the beds, but didn't get to plant the rest of the Lily of the Valley pips that I had bought from amazon.com.
It came to me that I wanted them when I smelled their fragrance outside the Gloucester County Historical Society Library every spring. They had quite a nice bed of them in the parking lot. I'm a volunteer there.
Master Gardeners from Whitall House generously gave me pots of them from their own gardens and they are coming up, but I wanted MORE. I'll plant the pips tomorrow.
I hope you were outside on this splendid day which couldn't have been a better day to remind us of how wonderful our planet is.
On June 5th, I'll be taking a trip to Bartram's Gardens and Chanticleer with two friends. I'll let you know how that goes.
I haven't visited that many gardens in the past, (Longwood, from time to time, of course) but I go regularly to visit various trees, such as the Salem Oak. Anyhow I did get to see the Doris Duke Gardens (North Central NJ) before they closed and, as you recall, I visited all the State Parks in SJ last year. Some years back, I had ventured further north some years ago and also visited The Great Swamp. This would be a good time of year to go there, while the waters are flowing and the mosquitoes aren't quite out yet. This is a wonderful time of the year to be in any park!
This week I'll be taking a walking tour of historic Woodbury. More on that after Friday, April 26.
Nothing makes me happier than to be outdoors walking in a park or woods. I especially with my canine pal, Trixie Belden. I hope you got outside today too!
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Second Lecture
The second lecture I attended was about the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall; I'm sorry, I tried to look up the authors of the book, who were presenting the lecture, but didn't have any instant success and I'm under a time constraint here, so I'll simply give you the url to the Gloucester County Historical Society and you can visit there and possibly find the info on the meeting and lecture which was last night, Wednesday, April 10 at 7:00 p.m.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njgchs/Library.html
They were interesting speakers, the two authors. I was interested to find out how many times the rooms of the Independence Hall have been gutted and renovated and to see pictures of how radically didfferent it was through the time periods. Also, there was a clock in the wall made by the Stretch Clock makers who made the clock in the Whitall House.
On the liberty bell the most interesting fact, to me, was that once it went to space and when it came back, the door to its capsule was opened too soon and it sank to the bottom of the ocean, Not to worry, first of all, there were seven replicas of the bell of which this was one, and also, at some later point, the bell was retrieved from the ocean floor.
One of the two authors of the book Independence Hall and the Libery Bell got his start at the Glooucester County Historical Society, where I am a volunteer. I've been working on indexing Ruth Page Rogers diary. She was an Elk Twp. born residendt who became a pioneer Mormon and went to Utah. I'm also working on the Cutrufello family photographs, a new acquisition which I've mentioned before. My sister rescued the passport and photographs from the turn of the century through the 1940's from the sidewalk trash and we were so intrigued that we were happy to find a home for them at GCHSL.
Out of space again and the slide bar can't help me get past Dr. Oz, so I'm signing out. Enjjoy the weather. I'm on my way to Atsion Lake to hike with my best dog friend, Trixie (who picture I would post if I could figure out the new protocol here) and Barbara Soleem. I may have to start a whole new page to put my quickly mounting photos up somewhhere.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njgchs/Library.html
They were interesting speakers, the two authors. I was interested to find out how many times the rooms of the Independence Hall have been gutted and renovated and to see pictures of how radically didfferent it was through the time periods. Also, there was a clock in the wall made by the Stretch Clock makers who made the clock in the Whitall House.
On the liberty bell the most interesting fact, to me, was that once it went to space and when it came back, the door to its capsule was opened too soon and it sank to the bottom of the ocean, Not to worry, first of all, there were seven replicas of the bell of which this was one, and also, at some later point, the bell was retrieved from the ocean floor.
One of the two authors of the book Independence Hall and the Libery Bell got his start at the Glooucester County Historical Society, where I am a volunteer. I've been working on indexing Ruth Page Rogers diary. She was an Elk Twp. born residendt who became a pioneer Mormon and went to Utah. I'm also working on the Cutrufello family photographs, a new acquisition which I've mentioned before. My sister rescued the passport and photographs from the turn of the century through the 1940's from the sidewalk trash and we were so intrigued that we were happy to find a home for them at GCHSL.
Out of space again and the slide bar can't help me get past Dr. Oz, so I'm signing out. Enjjoy the weather. I'm on my way to Atsion Lake to hike with my best dog friend, Trixie (who picture I would post if I could figure out the new protocol here) and Barbara Soleem. I may have to start a whole new page to put my quickly mounting photos up somewhhere.
Two Lectures
Wow the first days of what feels more like summer than spring! Already the forsythia have flung themselves into bloom and the blossoming trees are clothing their recently black, naked, shivering branches in white and pink finery. All of this, of course, puts one in mind of gardens.
Recently on PBS, I saw a NATURE program called What Plants Talk ABout. It was so interesting, I ordered a copy of the dvd. No one really wants to hear the plot of a show repeated verbally so I'll just tell you one interesting detail. Plants send a chemical message into the air, kind of like the old concept of 'miasma,' i think, that notifies a predator that it's prey is on the plant. That way, the insect eating a plant can be removed by its enemy.
That chemical miasma, pictured in the tv program as a pale green fog, fascinated me. I read recently that scientist couldn't figure out how elepants miles away could know what each other were doing. They discovered, eventually that the elephant gave a low vocalizing below our ability to hear, and communicated that way.
The first lecture I attended was on landscaping given at Mickleton Library by my sister, Susan Wright, who is a landscape designer. It was very well done and I learned more than I can say here, especially as Dr. Oz/s ad is covering my writing with a pop-up that I can't remove so I can't see what I'm typing. I may have to go to another entry after this and begin again, so I'll close by saying I'm doing two gardents in one day June 5th on a bus tour with Seniour Citizens United of Camden County, to Bartram's Garden and Chanticleer. I did actually visit Bartram's Garden before on a Friends Meeting tour when i was a member of the Cherry Street Meeting back in the 1980's but it will be delightful to visit again. Signing off for this entry - Happy trails - stay outside! Jo Ann
Recently on PBS, I saw a NATURE program called What Plants Talk ABout. It was so interesting, I ordered a copy of the dvd. No one really wants to hear the plot of a show repeated verbally so I'll just tell you one interesting detail. Plants send a chemical message into the air, kind of like the old concept of 'miasma,' i think, that notifies a predator that it's prey is on the plant. That way, the insect eating a plant can be removed by its enemy.
That chemical miasma, pictured in the tv program as a pale green fog, fascinated me. I read recently that scientist couldn't figure out how elepants miles away could know what each other were doing. They discovered, eventually that the elephant gave a low vocalizing below our ability to hear, and communicated that way.
The first lecture I attended was on landscaping given at Mickleton Library by my sister, Susan Wright, who is a landscape designer. It was very well done and I learned more than I can say here, especially as Dr. Oz/s ad is covering my writing with a pop-up that I can't remove so I can't see what I'm typing. I may have to go to another entry after this and begin again, so I'll close by saying I'm doing two gardents in one day June 5th on a bus tour with Seniour Citizens United of Camden County, to Bartram's Garden and Chanticleer. I did actually visit Bartram's Garden before on a Friends Meeting tour when i was a member of the Cherry Street Meeting back in the 1980's but it will be delightful to visit again. Signing off for this entry - Happy trails - stay outside! Jo Ann
Friday, April 5, 2013
Largest alligator in the US outside of Florida
Well, I just couldn't get it right - was it the largest alligator in the world? The USA? New Jersey - ha ha - I know there are none in NJ, so he'd have to be the largest one north of Florida. Anyhow his name is Mike - it is actually "?___ something Mike" like Monumental Mike or Mammoth Mike, I can't remember. Okay, I looked it up Mighty Mike, it is!
This alligator is BIG - way to big for the little puddle and window where he is forced to live. I'm not a fan of zoos or circuses or aquariums. I hate to see animals trapped and on display, however, I will say that there was a sign that explained that Mike was slated to be destroyed at a boat landing in Florida until the animal control officer contacted some nature officials and he was captured and moved around to be an ambassador for the alligator world.
Is he better off? Who knows, but my pal for the day at the aquarium and I discussed it and I said if I had a choice between being trapped in a small room with books inside a library for the rest of my life or of being shot, I'd take the room and the books. I hope Mike has a meditative mind, which, by his looks, I think he might. The Hippos were cool too.
I missed out on wishing everyone a Happy National Walking Day, two days ago. I walked Audubon Lake, Big Timber Creek park, Newton Creek Park, and Knight's Park, to celebrate. Walking is my favorite thing to do. Hope you were out and about too! Happy Trails! Jo Ann
This alligator is BIG - way to big for the little puddle and window where he is forced to live. I'm not a fan of zoos or circuses or aquariums. I hate to see animals trapped and on display, however, I will say that there was a sign that explained that Mike was slated to be destroyed at a boat landing in Florida until the animal control officer contacted some nature officials and he was captured and moved around to be an ambassador for the alligator world.
Is he better off? Who knows, but my pal for the day at the aquarium and I discussed it and I said if I had a choice between being trapped in a small room with books inside a library for the rest of my life or of being shot, I'd take the room and the books. I hope Mike has a meditative mind, which, by his looks, I think he might. The Hippos were cool too.
I missed out on wishing everyone a Happy National Walking Day, two days ago. I walked Audubon Lake, Big Timber Creek park, Newton Creek Park, and Knight's Park, to celebrate. Walking is my favorite thing to do. Hope you were out and about too! Happy Trails! Jo Ann
Places I should have gone and a place I'm going.
Well, I was punished a couple of times recently for not keeping up with my e-mail. It takes so long that I've been heading out to walk the dog at Timber Creek Park everyday without turning on the computer. So I missed a great genealogy and stories presentation at Salem Genealogical Society and last night I missed a presentation by a friend of mine, Carol Suplee at Medford on the history of Willingboro. I'm really sorry about that. She is in a writing group with tme and I'm sure it was a fascinating presentation.
http://www.medfordhistory.org/loc/loc.html
Today, I'm headed off to the NJ State Aquarium which I haven't visited in nearly a decade, through two renovations, I understand. More on that later.
And on the subject of genealogy, my sister was on her way home from work and passed a family clearing out a house and putting all sorts of interesting things on the curb. She asked if she could look and they said it was all trash and she could help herself. She found a trash bag filled with family photographs from the 1930-s through the 1950's and a passport for the progenitor and first immigrant of the family Donenic Cutrufello. There were photos of the family with their tenement garden in the Bronx, and my favorite, a pair of long white gloves and the work card of Martha Cutrufello who worked as a Cabaret dancer; there were two photos of her in color in beautiful ballgowns.
I felt so sorry for the photos and asked at Gloucester County Historical Society if they knew of a group that would house this material since it documents early Italian immigration into the farmlands of SJ, and they said, generously that they would give it a home! I was so happy that my sister, Susan Wright, saved this irreplaceable and priceless resource for someone who might be interested in the future. How sad when a grandmother dies and no one cares enough about the family history to give it a home.
My sister showed them what was in the trash bag, including Domenic Guiseppi's Cutrufello's passport from 1917, and they said "Trash, we don't want any of it." Maybe a family quarrel was behind it. Who knows. But the photographs are saved and the gloves.
http://sj.sunne.ws/2013/03/26/history-of-willingboro-at-medford-historical-society/
http://www.medfordhistory.org/loc/loc.html
Today, I'm headed off to the NJ State Aquarium which I haven't visited in nearly a decade, through two renovations, I understand. More on that later.
And on the subject of genealogy, my sister was on her way home from work and passed a family clearing out a house and putting all sorts of interesting things on the curb. She asked if she could look and they said it was all trash and she could help herself. She found a trash bag filled with family photographs from the 1930-s through the 1950's and a passport for the progenitor and first immigrant of the family Donenic Cutrufello. There were photos of the family with their tenement garden in the Bronx, and my favorite, a pair of long white gloves and the work card of Martha Cutrufello who worked as a Cabaret dancer; there were two photos of her in color in beautiful ballgowns.
I felt so sorry for the photos and asked at Gloucester County Historical Society if they knew of a group that would house this material since it documents early Italian immigration into the farmlands of SJ, and they said, generously that they would give it a home! I was so happy that my sister, Susan Wright, saved this irreplaceable and priceless resource for someone who might be interested in the future. How sad when a grandmother dies and no one cares enough about the family history to give it a home.
My sister showed them what was in the trash bag, including Domenic Guiseppi's Cutrufello's passport from 1917, and they said "Trash, we don't want any of it." Maybe a family quarrel was behind it. Who knows. But the photographs are saved and the gloves.
http://sj.sunne.ws/2013/03/26/history-of-willingboro-at-medford-historical-society/
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