UNIVERSITY^
PENNSYLVANIA.
LIBRARIES
THE BURCHAM FARM: FROM MARSH TO FARM TO FACTORY
Patricia Joan Bovers
A THESIS
in
Historic Preservation
Presented to the faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE
1995
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David Brownlee. Professor, History of Art, Advisor
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Robert St. Geprge, Professor, Folklore and Folklife, Reader
David G. C^eLpflt- Professor of- Architecture
Graduate Group Chairman
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PENNSYLVANIA
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter One -- History of Maurice River Area
Section One -- History
Early History and Settlement
Location and Description
First Settlers
Europeans in South Jersey
The Early History of Maurice River Township
Early Surveys of the Maurice River Area
John Hopman
Section Two -- Woodcutting
Lumbering on the Maurice
The White Cedar Industry
Section Three -- Industry and the Maurice
Iron
Glass Factories
Millville's Heyday
Agriculture
Chapter Two -- Marshland
Section One -- Early Uses
Salt marsh in Colonial New Jersey
Cattle in the Marsh
Salt Hay Harvesting
Section Two -- Technology of Salt marsh
Location and description
Types of Salt marsh: Low, Middle and High Marsh
The development of salt marsh
Dyking the marsh: What is dyking?
How do dikes work?
Building a Dike
Diking Tools
Marsh Cedar: Mining and Shingle Cutting
Section Three -- Administering the banks
The History of Diking
Diking Laws
Corporate Diking
Meadow Company Organization
Responsibilities of Officers
The Nineteenth Century
Class Conflict over Diking
Section Four -- Burcham area Meadow Companies
Millville Meadow Banking Company
Heirs of Learning Meadow Company
Chapter Three -- Swedes on the Delaware
Section One --The fight for the Delaware valley
New Sweden
English Puritans in Salem
The English
The Long Finn Rebellion
New Jersey
John Fenwick
Section Two
First Swedish colonists
Johan Printz
Section Three - Life in New Sweden
Necessities :Housing
Food, Clothing
Agriculture: Livestock, Lumbering,
Dykes in Raccoon
I I
Section Four -- The move across the river to New Jersey
The Beginnings of Unrest
The English period
Penn's Campaign
Permits to the Swedes
Settlement
Section Five -- Inhabitants of Maurice River before 1720
The notes of Judge Joshua Brick
Some of the Early residents of Maurice River
Section Six -- Why John Hopman moved to Maurice River
Hans Hopman, early Delaware settler
Hans' son Frederick, (#1)
Hans son John (#1)
John Hopman #2, Johannes Frederickson Hopman of Maurice
River
The Maurice River Church
Records of Moravian Missionaries
John Hopman's 1746 Will
Hopman's decision to move to Maurice River
Nicholas Hoffman
Chapter Four - Burcham Period
Bricks:
History of the Brick Industry
Brickmaking Technology
History of Millville Brickyards
History of Amaziah Burcham's brickyard
The House and the People:
The farmhouse
History of the Burcham family
The Farm Today.
Appendixes
A Burcham Deeds
B Gricco Deeds
C Clunn Deeds
D Millville Meadow Companies
1 1 1
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people for their invaluable
help with this thesis:
Laurence Ball
Leverett Ball
Fola Bevan and the staff of the Millville Historical Society
Daniel Bluestone
Joan Britton Bovers
William Bovers
Betty Erickson Briggs
David Brownlee
Burcham family
Richard Castagna, Mike Ryan and the Aerial photos Division in
Trenton
Susan Ceccaci
Michael Chiarappa
Peter Craig
Cumberland County Courthouse research staff
Dan Drombrowski and the N.J. Geological Survey Office in Trenton
Bette Epstein and the staff of the N.J. State Archives
Herbert and Kathryn Fithian
Margaret Hickey
Carl and Ragnhild Holm
Pat Martinelli and the Wheaton Village Library
William Nixon and the staff of the Cumberland County Historical
Society
Tom Piatt
Paul Schopp and the Camden County Historical Society
Kim Sebold
Robert St. George
Rudy Strauss
Robert Thomas, Millville City Engineer
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Wetherby
William Wetherby
Dale Wetstein
Carl Williams
Christa Willmanns-Wells
Pat Witt
IV
List of Illustrations
Figure One, page viii:
Aerial view of Burcham farm, c. 1990 taken by Dale Wetstein,
Millville photographer, and owner of Steelman's Photo.
Figure Two, p. 26:
Two types of Salt Hay found at the Burcham farm, drawings
done after Britton and Brown
Figure Three, p. 34:
Photographs of early dyking instruments -- the mud skiver and
the heart-shaped shovel, taken from Robert Sim.
Figure Four, p. 46:
Map of New Sweden drawn for the Federal Writers Project of
the Works Progress Administration, State of New Jersey, 1938,
which was sponsored by The N.J. Commission to Commemorate the
300 Anniversary of the Swedes and Finns on the Delaware.
Figure Five, p. 82:
Map of divisions of Johannes Hopman's land in 1746
a composite of two sections of survey
Figure Six, p. 83:
1714 Scott Survey
Figure Seven, p. 84:
Proprietary Survey of 1691. The Bartlett tract.
Figure Eight, p. 85:
Drawing of Swedish Church at Maurice River.
Figure Nine, p. 91:
Advertisement in the Farm Journal Directory, Bridgeton, N.J.
edition, 1880.
Figure Ten, p. 96:
Site plan of the Burcham brickyard in 1940, drawing done from
a negative on file at the State Aerial Photos Division, 9 Ewing
Street, Trenton, New Jersey.
Figures Eleven -- Thirteen, pp. 99-101:
Illustrations of brickmaking equipment that was similar to
equipment used at the Burcham brickyard. Illustrations were taken
from advertisements in issues of The Clayworker that were found at
the Burcham farm in 1961.
Figure Fourteen, p. 102:
Circa 1960 photos of the Burcham farm taken by Dale Wetstein.
Includes view of remains of early brick kiln, old barge used for
hauling bricks.
Figure Fifteen, p. 103, 104:
1904 photos of the two brickyards at Millville -- Hess and
Golden's and the Burcham's. Photos taken for the Geological Survey
of N. J.
Figure Sixteen, p. 105:
The Clavworker. front page of 1893 edition, a trade magazine
found under carpeting laid in the first brick addition in 1907 (at the
time of the Gothic renovation) for insulation.
Figure Seventeen, p. 106:
Invoice sent by the Burcham brickyard, property of Dale
Wetstein, Millville photographer and owner of Steelman's Photo.
Figures Eighteen -- Twenty, pp. 113-116:
Photographs of the Burcham Farmhouse. Historic photographs
courtesy of Dale Wetstein, Richard and Bill Wetherby, and Janice and
Jeannette Burcham.
Contemporary photos taken by Herbert Fithian, William Bovers and
Patricia Bovers.
Figures Twenty - Twenty-four, pp. 117-121:
Architectural Drawings of the farmhouse
1) Early wood frame building. Building with first brick addition
2) Farmhouse after 1907: Basement, First floor
3) Farmhouse after 1907: Second and Third floors. Section
4) Farmhouse in 1995: Basement, First floor
5) Farmhouse in 1995:, Second and Third floors
Figure Twenty-five, p. 124:
VI
Photographs of Janice and Jeanette Burcham working on their
farm.
Figure Twenty-six, p. 128:
Site plan of the Burcham property in 1994.
Figures Twenty-seven and Twenty-eight, pp. 129, 130:
Charles Hartman's Maps, which are kept in the Special
Collections Division of the Alexander Library at Rutgers University,
include
1) The Scott survey
2) The Squibb and Byerly surveys
VI I
Vil
^\\\\i\[U J M.J. i^qo
Introduction
The Burcham farm at Millville, New Jersey, is the last dyke
farm on the Maurice River. It is also the only known dyke farm in the
states of New Jersey and Delaware, the sole survivor of the many
dyked meadows that lined the waterways of the Delaware valley in
the nineteenth century. It is a property that has been dyked
continuously since 1814, and was probably dyked before that time.
Historically, dyking was a critical technology, playing a major
role in the development of the region. Dyking enabled early farmers
to grow good crops without fertilizer and without the expense of
clearing forest land. This was essential for farmers in the wooded
swamplands of the Delaware valley, where travel was accomplished
mostly by water, where clearing the dense forest was very difficult,
where lands wore out easily, and fertilizers like marl were not
readily available. Early farmers relied on the fertility of dyked
marshland, and colonial laws record dyking in New Jersey as early as
1711.
In the nineteenth century, dyking marshland became a
corporate affair, one that was mandated by the state. Agriculture in
South Jersey, as in Delaware, began to rely on the increased
profitability of meadow lands. The Burcham property was also a
part of this period of universal dyking, when its banks were
maintained by the local Milville Meadow Banking Company, a group
that shared the costs of maintaining their contiguous banks, or
dykes. During this period, the Maurice and Cohansey rivers were
dyked for many miles.
In 1865, the Burcham farm found a new and more profitable
use for its dyked lands -- a brickyard -- becoming Amaziah
Burcham's New Jersey Drain and Tile Works in 1867. Gradually the
brickyard would be equipped with the most up-to-date brickmaking
equipment available, producing as many as 15,000 bricks a week
from clay deposits that were accessed by the dyked marsh.
The conversion of the farm to a industrial site was timely,
coinciding with a boom of the nascent glass making industry in
1
Millville. The industrial town was expanding rapidly, and bricks
were badly needed to build it. From 1865 until 1942, the dykes on
the property were maintained for this brickyard/farm, a unique
landscape on which brick workers cut wood from the forest to fire
the brick kilns, and lived on the property, while being fed by the
produce of the farm.
The Burcham's farm is not only significant for its historic
technology, however. It is also a significant historically, as it is
Cumberland County's only physical link to the landscape of its first
Swedish settlers -- the pioneers of 1700-1740. The Burcham farm
takes on this Swedish identity through its first owner, Johannes
Hopman, who bought 800 acres on the east side of the Maurice river
in 1737.
Recently, cultural geographers have been able to verify the
accounts of early historians like L.Q. Elmer, who wrote that Swedish
settlers were living along the Maurice for several decades before
the first deeds were sold there in 1720. These pioneers lived in
what is now referred to an an extralegal land-use pattern that was
the result of the legal confusion over ownership of South Jersey
deeds. It seems likely that some of the Hopmans were in the area
before they bought title from the English, as Nicholas Hopman last
appeared in the church records of his old church in 1731, seven years
before he bought property at Maurice River.
John Hopman moved to the river from the Swedish settlement
at Raccoon Creek (now Swedesboro) following a Swedish migration
that began about 1700 and was heaviest between 1720 and 1740.
According to local tradition, Hopman was the first to dyke his
lands on the Maurice, and his 1746 will establishes that he had
begun before that date. The survey of his lands that was included
with the will, establishes a direct link to the dyked landscapes built
by the early Swedish pioneers throughout the Delaware Valley.
These Swedish farmsteads are described extensively by Peter Kalm
in the 1740's. This landscape, while it is maintained by
technologies that are very changed from the mud and shovels of the
Swedish pioneer's is still an evocative artifact of the river-loving
Swedes of the past.
Through the Hopmans, the farm becomes a rich example of a
forgotten people -- the disgruntled Swedish pioneers who preferred
the isolation of the unbroken frontier to the English cultural
dominance of the English Quakers in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Today, the historic landscape is a working farm, maintained by
the dedication of two sisters, Janice and Jeannette Burcham, the
granddaughters of the nineteenth century brick maker. For them,
maintaining the dykes is a constant and expensive struggle with New
Jersey's severe winter storms and strict Wetlands regulations. They
would never consider doing anything else. If their dykes were to
wash out, their home and a large chunk of the history of the area
would be gone, and could not be re-built.
What was once a marsh, became a farm, and then a brickyard.
Today it is the last of the dyked farms on the Maurice, though it is
no longer a commercially viable site. What comes next? Marsh
again?
Chapter 1 . Section 1-- Early History and Settlement
Before we can consider the role of the Burcham farm as a
historical artifact, we must first establish a basic understanding of
the farm's physical landscape and historical setting. Chapter One
begins this process with a description of its location and early
settlement, followed by a discussion of the developing economy.
Location and Description
Cumberland County is located in the southernmost part of New
Jersey, bounded on the southeast by Cape May County and on the
southwest by the Delaware Bay. It was established in 1 747, and
divided into six townships, one of which was called Maurice River.
Maurice River included all the land on the east side of Maurice until
1 802, when Millville was set off as a separate township.
The Maurice River runs southeast through Cumberland county
for 50 miles, draining an area of about 400 square miles. It is one
of two major rivers in the county (the Maurice and the Cohansey)
that empty into Delaware Bay.
Two types of soil are found in the county. One type, which is
found south of the Cohansey river, is sandy. North and west of the
Cohansey, the soil is clay and sandy loam. Salt marsh lines the
shore along the Delaware Bay and the lower sections of the Maurice
river. The marsh land is made up of blue-green marl, shells, sand-
encrusted iron deposits, (known as "bog ore") and ochre. Upland
areas consist of sandstone and pudding stone cemented by iron ore.
In Millville, a dam impounds the Maurice river into a reservoir
of about 900 acres, probably the largest artificial lake on the
Atlantic coast. The dam is 1/2 mile from the wharves of Millville
and forms the head of tidal influence.
The Burcham farm is at the southern limit of Millville
township, on the line between Millville and Maurice River Township.
It Is bordered by the east side of the Maurice river and the north side
of Menantico Creek
Native American History'
The first residents of the Burcham farm were members of the
Unalachtigo Indian tribe who summered on the property for several
centuries before the arrival of the white man. While they left no
written evidence of their civilization, they left a great quantity of
archaeological data in the muddy banks of the river. Arrowheads,
pottery shards, and oyster shells line the marsh below the Burcham
farm today, indicating the location of an Indian village. Imprints
made by two long houses in the mud of the marsh adjacent to the
Burcham property establish the exact site of one of their camps at
the head of the Menantico.^
The Indians were drawn to the Maurice for the same reasons
that the Europeans would be -- the easy navigability of the river and
the abundant plant and wildlife found there. They established
clusters of small wood huts along the Maurice's high places, and
returned to these camps every Spring. From these camps they
launched canoes for hunting and fishing expeditions, then returned to
smoke the fish and oysters, muskrats, deer and wild fowl to save for
the winter.
Unalachtigo women gathered wild vegetables and fruits and
grew corn, beans, squash and tobacco along the river in the fertile
forest land. They did not clear the forest, but simply planted
vegetables between the trees.
The excellent clay found at the head of the Menantico attracted
the Unalachtigos as keenly as it would Amaziah Burcham several
centuries later. Indian women needed good workable clay to make
their cooking pots, and the Burcham site has some of the best Cape
May age clay in the county. Gritty, loamy, sometimes very sandy
clay, it slakes slowly because the clay particles in it are evenly
distributed and hold the clay grains together.^ Indian women made
' Ann Shillingsburg Woodruff and F. Alan Palmer, The Unalachtigo. Original People of
Cumberland county. Cumberland County Historical Society publication, 1973.
2 Most recently, this property was owned by the Dr. Gricco of Vineland for rental income. It
can be accessed by Schooner Landing Road. In 1 81 5, it was owned by John Lanning, Jr. The
dikes washed out on this property in 1 960. Five lots are for sale there now.
^ Heinrich Ries and Henry B. Hummel, The Clavs and Clay Industry of New Jersey. Volume 6
of the final report of the state geologist, Trenton, 1 904, p. 346
5
pots for cooking by simply adding water and crushed oyster shells to
the clay, then firing it with a bit of charcoal.
Europeans in South Jersey
The history of Europeans along the Maurice begins about 1623
when the Dutch explorer and Governor of New Amsterdam, Cornelius
May, sailed down the Delaware, and named the New Jersey cape for
himself. He may also have named the Maurice river after the Dutch
regent.'' It was known as Prince Maurice's River before 1 692.
The Dutch claim to South Jersey was disputed by the Swedish,
however. Mey's military colony at Camden, N.J. was followed by a
Swedish fort on the Delaware that was built about 1 636. In 1 642,
the Swedes built a second fort, Fort Elfsborg, near Salem, New
Jersey . English settlers were also in the region by 1 641 , and about
1 664, their navy took possession of South Jersey by force. The
British king began selling tracts in South Jersey at this time, and
many Swedish and Dutch settlers had to buy title to their lands from
the English, despite previous claims, deeds or Indian purchases.
In 1 675, a group of English Quakers following John Fenwick
established themselves in Salem, New Jersey.
The Early History of Maurice River Township
Salem County's first official record of settlers on the Maurice
was made in 1 684, when the "Old road" was laid from Salem to
Maurice River. "^ By 1 694, Swedes were seen on the river by Gabriel
Thomas, a Quaker from England, who was visiting the area. He
published his account in London in 1 698, describing the Maurice as
an amazingly abundant place, a river where Swedes killed geese "for
their feathers only, leaving their carcasses behind them."
In fact, the first few settlers on Maurice River are generally
agreed to have been Swedes.^' Gushing and Sheppard cite as evidence
^ There is also a local tradition that the river was named for a Dutch ship that was stranded on
a sandbar in tthe 1 7th century. For details, see Herbert Vanaman,
5 Thomas Gushing and Charles Sheppard. History of Gloucester. Salem and Cumberland
Counties. Philadelphia: Everts and Peck, 1 883, p. 51 6
^ Ibid., p 51 4. LQ Elmer and Joshua Brick also concur. See Chapter 3 on the Swedes.
6
the 1 720 land deeds from the English to the Swedes. But surely
there were settlers there in small numbers by 1 684, when the old
road from Salem to Maurice River was laid. By 1 700, a small number
of lumberers and cattle owners were living near Buckshutem Creek,''
and a Swedish log cabin that is still standing (Caesar Hoskins') in
Mauricetown was built. English Quakers were in Salem and Cape
May, and some, like Aaron Leaming, were also buying land in the area.
The few early residents existed as a marginal part of the Salem
County community, living along the waterways and traveling by
water to Greenwich, the nearest town. There, two prominent
Quakers — Wood and Sheppard -- ran a successful dry goods store.
Goods were paid for with bonds printed by the store.
Michael Iszard, Jr.,** was an early resident of Maurice River. He
moved down to the west side of the Maurice in 1 704, selling his
lands in Greenwich. Daniel England was another early settler. His
sawmill (Izard's'^ in 1 756) was operating on Buckshutem Creek
before 1 705. Peter Erickson was another. He was given a land grant
on the Maurice by the Indians in 1 694 for his services as
interpreter!".
The small number of Maurice River settlers had grown by 1 705,
as the old road from Salem to Maurice River was re-built that year."
By 1718, the number of residents was still larger, as Salem
officials appointed a constable for the area. By 1 728, a second
constable was appointed, but the settlers lived at large spaces from
one another. Still there was no real town on the Maurice.
'' Buckshutem Creek joins the Maurice on its west side, at the same point that the Menantico
joins it on its east side.
Q The son of Michael Issard who moved from Chester County, PA, to Greenwich, NJ, before
1688.
^ Gushing and Sheppard say the mill was probably owned by Gabriel Izard, future owner of the
Burcham property, but other researchers disagree. See John Downer, History of the Iszard
family, a paper on file at the Gloucester County Historical Society. Downer believes it was
owned by John Izard who died in 1 769 and owned cattle, hogs, and a 1 /3 share of a trading
vessel that was likely shipping wood.
^ 0 Peter Craig, The 1 693 Census of Swedes on the Delaware. Winter Park, Florida: Studies in
Swedish American Genealogy, 1993, p. 72 and Salem Deeds, Liber 6, p 194.
^ ^ Gushing and Sheppard, History of Gloucester. Salem and Cumberland Counties, p. 518. It
crossed the river at Greenwich.
7
In 1720, Swedish settlers began leasing large tracts of land
from the West Jersey proprietors. Examples include Joseph Lord,
Joseph Thompson and Andrew Errickson, who leased lands from
Thomas Byerly.12 After four years of leasing, Erickson was able to
buy his tract outright in 1724. John and Peter Peterson bought
tracts about 1 730. John Hopman bought his tract in 1 737. Doubtless
these early settlers were there to make money on the lucrative
lumber trade.
By 1 743 a Swedish Lutheran church was built on the River,
just south of the Burcham farm. John Hopman, first owner of the
Burcham farm donated the land for the church.'-^ It had a
congregation of 60 parishioners.
By 1 747, Cumberland County was created from the lower
portion of Salem County. The new county included 3,000 residents.
On the first tax lists in 1751, "Prince Maurice's prescinct", which
was the name for all the territory east of the river , listed 51 men
with families, and 1 2 single men. Four sawmills were also listed in
the tax lists-- Aaron Leaming's, Frederick Hofman's, Isaac Sharp's
and Gabriel Vanemon's. The Erixons, the Hofmans, the Peterson,
Isard, Jones and Vanamon families were among the landowners
listed. This may not have included all the residents of the area,
however.
Early Surveys of the Maurice River Area
The area that would later become Millville was located in two
tracts surveyed to Richard and Thomas Penn before 1 776. They had
inherited the land from their father William Penn (son of the founder
of Philadelphia) and their brother John Penn.
The survey on the east of the river consisted of 1 9,962 acres.
In 1 776, Richard Penn conveyed 9,461 1 /2 of these acres to four
wealthy men from Burlington, who built a sawmill and a 60-acre
' 2 Andrew Errickson bought the same tract from Byerly in 1 724.
' ^ The site is today the property of Rudy Strauss, and is marked by a Moravia sign on Delsea
Drive. The church building disappeared many years ago, and most of the graveyard has fallen in
to the river. The last few gravestones were moved years ago. An old stone still marks the
corner where the graveyard once was.
8
mill pond there. The land was known as the Union Mills Tract.
Cedar, pine and oak were cut there for export.
The Burcham property, which is on the south end of Millville, is
not contained in Penn's survey. It is found in another early survey -
John Bartlett's 1 0,000 acre survey of 1691. (see Illustration )
Bartlett's tract was one of the original 1 /1 0th parcels conveyed by
the West Jersey Proprietors to Robert Squibbs. Gratia Bartlett,
widow of Benjamin Bartlett, conveyed the tract to John Scott of
Newport, Rhode Island in 1 707. It was said to contain 1 0,000 acres,
but actually contained more than 20,000."'' (see fig )
Scott left the property to his children in 1718. Most of it he
left to his sons, Edward and Joseph Scott, but 2,500 acres were left
to his daughter. The brothers sold their share to Edward Loomis
(Lummis) in February of 1 735.
Loomis sold his tract to four different buyers 1 )Abraham
Reeves (on April, 1 761 ), 2) John Hoffman (or Johannes Hopman, on
February 20, 1 738), 3) Abraham Jones, and 4) Andrew Heisler.
John Hopman
The first on-site owner of the Burcham farm was John
Hopman, '5 a third generation Swedish-American. Hopman bought 800
acres on the east side of the Maurice, running from the Menantico to
the Manumuskin in 1 736. Born and raised in the Raccoon Creek
settlement'^' in Gloucester County, Hopman brought his large family
to the area by 1 736. He is remembered as the man responsible for
building the Swedish Lutheran church, and the first man to bank (or
dyke) the river.
^ ^ There is some confusion about the survey to Scott. Historically it has been recorded as
crosiing the Menantico and the Clunn property, running from Scott's comer to the Maurice, and
many current land deeds are based on that "Scott line." It was moved slightly during the WPA
period, but not substantially, hence the discussions of the Scott line and the "False Scott line".
In the deed to William Lummis, though, the survey does not cross the Menantico; it follows the
Menantico down to the Maurice. In either event, it is clear that John Hopman sold the triangle
of land above the Menantico to Nicholas Hopman in 1 748. For more details see the chain of title
for the Burcham farm in Appendix A.
^ ^ John was also known as Johannes Hopman or Hoffman.
' ° Raccoon Creek is now known as Swedesboro, N.J.
9
Section Two continues the discussion of the first settlement
of the Maurice River area with a discussion of the economic history
of the area, beginning with a discussion of the first industry in the
area - lumbering. In this first economy, as in later economies,
marshland was essential, as it was in the marsh that white cedar
trees were found. The high colonial demand for cedar drove up the
price of cedar stands, and inspired the beginnings of economic
activity in the area.
Chapter I. Section II -- Lumbering on the Maurice
Lumbering was the first industry to develop along the Maurice
River. The forest there was thick with oak, hickory, chestnut and
pine; the marsh was full of cedar, and water power was available at
the many small creeks that fed into the river. Small sawmills -
both legal and illegal — were operated on mill ponds, many of which
long ago dried up and disappeared without a trace.
Near the Burcham property, early sawmills included Daniel
England's, which was built on Buckshutem Creek^ before 17052;
William Rawson's, which was built on the Menantico about 1 71 8^;
and Peter Peterson's, a 920-acre mill on the Menantico that he
purchased in 1 71 1 . It was located further up the Menantico near the
"Berryman" tributaries.^ (see Hartman map, fig )
^ Buckshutem creek and Menantico Creek meet at the Maurice River by the Burcham farm.
Menantico creek flows into the Maurice river from the Northeast. Buckshutem Creek flows into
the river from the Southwest.
2 See Cushing and Sheppard, History of Gloucester. Salem and Cumberland Counties, pp. 514,
516, 518, 520 and Hartman maps. Daniel England's sawmill on Buckshutem Creek is mentioned
in the records of the new road that was built from Salem to Maurice River in 1 705. England's
mill was owned by William Hall, the Salem merchant, at the time of his death in 1713. (NJ
Archives volume) It was later owned by Cormack. In 1 756, it was owned by Izard, probably
not by Gabriel, as Cushing &Sheppard suggest. (Gabriel later became the owner of the Burcham
property), but by John Isard. (see John Downer, History of the Iszard family, a paper on file
at the Gloucester County Historical Society, p 1 0). The mill pond was known later as Laurel
Lake and Buckshutem Pond.
3 Wm. Rawson's mill was later owned by Wm. Browning (1 800), then by Nathaniel Buzby and
Jonathan Dallas in 1 820. It was best known as Daniel Clark's mill or Clark's pond (1 860). In
1 867 it was owned by John McNeal. Dam broke about 1 895 and was never rebuilt. (See
Hartman maps.)
^ Both Cushing & Sheppard and L.Q. Elmer mistakenly believed that Rawson's mill and Learning's
mill (which was Peterson's) were the same, but Charles Hartman's maps, early surveys and
10
Rawson and Peterson were Swedes. Rawson was probably the
son of Olle Rasse or Rawson whose cabin is seen on the 1714 Scott
survey, so William had doubtless been living in the area for a few
years. He bought 1 1 00 acres of forest on the Menantico in 1718 and
established his sawmill soon afterward ^ . In 1 720, he established a
tavern at his mill to provide food and drink to his fellow lumberers,
applying for a tavern license in 1 722.''
Peterson moved to Maurice River from Calcon Hook,
Pennsylvania, changing his name from Peter Peterson Stake to
dissociate himself from his notorious father. He acquiring 920
acres and a saw mill in 1711.^
Much timber was cut at these Maurice River mills, then shipped
and traded from the nearby harbor which was known as "Shingle
Landing," later renamed Millville.
The first description of lumbering activity on the Maurice is
from a much later date - 1 748 -- when Peter Kalm, a naturalist
from Swedish Finland, visited the area. Kalm described furious
lumbering activity in Cape May in 1 748, and the rapidly disappearing
white cedar, describing the "great quantities of shingles" that were
annually exported to New York and the West Indies from South
Jersey.
According to Kalm, much of South Jersey was "destitute of
cedars" by 1 749, with "only young shoots left. "8 Lumberers were
"utterly regardless of posterity," he wrote, "bent only upon their
present advantage".
The intensity of the tree cutting in the 1 8th century was
driven by the international market for lumber. Wealthy colonial
merchants were trading wood to the West Indies on ships that left
directly from the Maurice. Peter Grubb's Shallop Cornwel was an
deeds show their different locations on the Menantico. Peterson's mill tract was sold on 7 June,
1 741 at public auction to Aaron Learning II, the prominent Cape May Quaker. (Genealogical
Magazine of New Jersey, Volume 54, p. 1 25).
5 Liber B, Folio 69.
" Gushing and Sheppard, op. cit.. p. 520
^ Craig, Peter, The 1 693 Census of Swedes on the Delaware, pp. 40-41 .
^ Kalm, Peter, The Amenca of 1 750: Travels in North America, ed. by A.B. Benson ,New York:
Wilson-Erickson, 1937.
II
example, sailing down to the Maurice River from Wilmington,
Delaware in 1 749, and trading corn, nails, rum, molasses, fishing
hooks, beef and bacon for wood. Before 1 750, merchants were
shipping lumber directly from the Maurice to North Carolina, the
West Indies, England, Portugal and the Canary Islands. 9
After the Revolution, the demand for timber increased still
more, and outside investors bought up tracts of forest in Cumberland
to work off the timber. By 1 776, four Philadelphia investors (The
Union Company) bought a 9,000 acre tract along the Maurice
(including the area that would later become Millville) and dammed
the Maurice river to build a sawmill. Cumberland County grew by a
third.
In 1 779, Maurice River woodlands were being advertised in the
Pennsvlvania Gazette , and its hawkers emphasized the Maurice's
easy access to cedar and transportation: "Seventy-four acres of
cedar swamp" were offered "on the west side of Morris River near a
landing where vessels passed and re passed."
In 1823, almost miraculously, Millville men were still
advertising cedar and pine for sale in the Bridgeton Observer: "two
feet shingles, seasoned pine boards, cedar boards, cedar siding and
other building materials". 1 0 By this time, however, the wood they
were selling would have had to have been retrieved from the marsh,
as the stands of cedar had been mostly clearcut.
White Cedar Industry"! 1
The highest profits in the colonial lumber industry came from
white cedar. Wood cutters flocked to the South Jersey cedar stands
from all over, many of them living in small makeshift sheds, and
jammed in very close quarters. They worked as fast as they could,
stayed until the cedar was gone, and then moved on to the next
"Cripple." As early as 1 700, this white cedar industry was booming
^ Wheaton J. Lane "Water Transportation in Colonial New Jersey" Proceedings N.J. Historical
Society. Volume 53, pp. 77 87, 1935.
^ 0 The advertisement was for Stratton, Buck and Company.
Silas Little, "Ecology and Silviculture of Whitecedar and Associated Hardwoods in Southern
New Jersey," Yale University School of Forestry Bulletin, no. 56, New Haven, 1 950, pp. 5-6
12
near MillvilleJ 2 and cedar stands sold for much more than other
timber tracts. Cedar stands sold for more than dyked meadow or
cultivated farmland, 1 3and cedar products accounted for 20 percent
of ail the exports from Cape May County in 1 758 J "^
Cedar was particularly prized by the building industry.! 5 |t
was durable -- strong enough to support a roof, but still lightweight
and easy to saw. It was also fire-resistant, as it retained water and
oils. By 1 750, all the houses in New York and Philadelphia were
roofed with cedar shingles. ^ ^ in i 749, Kalm described its
attributes and uses:
[White Cedar]. . . . will resist decay the most; it will make good
fence rails, and also posts which are to be put into the ground.
. . . good canoes. . . . The young trees are used for hoops. . .
because they are thin and pliable; the thick, tall trees . . .for
cooper's work. Houses which are built of it surpass in duration
those ... of American oak. Many of the houses in Rappapo (an
early Swedish community in S Jersey) were made of this
white cedar. . . .^^
In 1 759, Charles Read, the speaker of New Jersey's 1 8th
provincial assembly and an owner of timber tracts, sponsored a bill
to prevent the "waste" (by this he meant theft) of timber --
mentioning pine and cedar, specifically. 1 8 Trespassers who
damaged trees were to fined 20 shillings per tree.
1 2 w.L Hall and H. Maxwell. "Uses of Commercial Woods of the United states: 1 Cedars,
Cypresses and Sequoias". U.S. Dept of Agriculture Forest Service. Bulletin 95, 1911.
^ 3 Weiss, Harry B. and Grace M. Weiss. Some Early Industries of New Jersey. Trenton: New
Jersey Agricultural Society, 1965
^ ^ George Cook, Geology of New Jersey. New Brunswick: Board of Managers of the NJ State
Legislature. 1857, p. 192.
1 5 It was used for joists and rafters, doors, shingles, lath and fences, for churns and
washtubs, canoes and cordwood.
^ ^ Peter Kalm, op. cit.. p. 299.
^^Ibid.. p. 299
^ ^ C.R. Woodward, Ploughs and Politics. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, N.J.: 1 942
p 139.
13
By 1 765, many white cedar stands in South Jersey had been
clear-cut J 9 but the lumber industry was still booming. Cedar
merchants turned to the accumulation of felled cedar logs in the
swamp to meet the demand.
South Jersey was attracting timber workers from other areas.
In Jacob Spicer's 1 775 journal, he noted that his Cape May neighbor
was getting lumberers down from New York: "John Schuyler .. . .
gives 1 8 d for cutting and the cutter finds his own diet."20 in 1 792,
New Jersey exported 1 million, 220 thousand cedar shingles , as
well as 3,374,900 feet of pine, and 48,41 2 staves and heading. 21
By 1 834, cedar stands were sold for $300 per acre. By 1 856,
they sold for $1 ,000 an acre, 22 though all first growth stands were
gone. Nonetheless, 610,000 shingles were cut in Cape May County
from mined cedar that year. They sold for $1 5 per thousand
shingles.23
^ ° Samuel Smith, The History of the Colony of Nova-Caesaria. or New Jersey. Burlington,
N.J.: 1765, pp. 485-488.
20 Diary of Jacob Spicer. Cape May County Proceedings, N.J. Historical Society, Series 1 Vol
3, p. 1 96. Spicer was a prominent landowner and legisator from Cape May.
2' Tench Coxe, A View of the U. S. of America. Philadelphia: 1794, p 419.
22 Silas Little, Jr., op. cit.. pp. 7-8.
23 George Cook. Geology of Caoe May County. New Brunswick: Board of Managers of the NJ
State Legislature, 1857.
14
Section Three continues the discussion of the economic
development of Millville in order to place the Burcham farm into its
economic context. Until the middle of the nineteenth century,
agricultural industries dominated the economy, but after mid-
century, industry took its place.
Amaziah Burcham, a Union soldier returning from the war,
decided that there was more money to be made in industry than there
was in agriculture. He bought the brickyard/farm in 1867, and began
making the bricks that would build the boomtown of Millville.
Chapter I Section III -- Industry and the Maurice River
In 1795, the Philadelphia Union Company's investors dedide to
sell off their timber tract near Shingle Landing (later Millville) to
four men who imagined an industrial future for the area. Joseph
Buck, a former Sheriff of the County, was one of the new owners. He
began selling lots in 1801, naming the town "Millville," because that
was the name most commonly associated with American industry
and progress"! . Surely such a name would lure industry and new
residents to the sleepy backwater.
Buck's industrial plan for Millville included promoting the
water power of Union Pond, and the many acres of wood and easy
navigability of the river. In addition iron ore was available in the
swamps, and immense beds of high quality were located just below
Millville.
Iron
Iron manufacturing began on the Maurice river south of town
even before Millville was established. In America's post-war period,
iron forges were booming, freed from the quotas imposed by British
law, and demand for iron was high. Eli Budd built his iron forge on
the Manumuskin in 1785, and was manufacturing iron bars or pigs.
^ Thomas Baldwin, and J. Thomas, New and Complete Gazetteer of the U.S.. Philadelphia:
Lippincott, Grambo, 1854. pp. 703-707.
15
The local source for iron ore was the swamps of Downe Township,
where "bog ore" formed on particles of sand. 2
By 1803, just a few years after Millville was incorporated, the
iron industry came to town. David C. Wood3 bought 20,000 acres of
forest, dug a canal from Union Pond into town, and began producing
lamp posts, stoves, and other castings (including the cast iron
railings for Philadelphia's public squares). Stoves and pigs made at
his furnace were shipped up the Menantico to Schooner Landing, then
sent by road to Philadelphia. ^ By 1834, he had established a second
-- more modern -- iron furnace at another site in Millville in 1834.
The second furnace was the first pit cast foundry built in the U.S.,
and pipe was made there by the vertical pit cast process, using dry
sand molds and cores, and casting the pipe in 12 foot lengths.
Despite the beginnings of the iron industry, Millville of 1804
was hardly a boom town. Millville had only 11 buildings -- one on
the west side of the river, and ten on the east side including a
school house and a Presbyterian church. 5 Lots in town were
worthless, and owners didn't even bother with deeds. It was only
after the glass industry came to Millville in 1834 that the
population began to take off.
By 1840, Millville had 1,200 residents, and several factories,
but its two original iron furnaces were closing. D.C. Wood's first
foundry. Union Mill, closed in 1849. The annual product there had
been about 600 tons. By 1851, D.C. Wood was bankrupt and both of
his factories were sold to his brother, R.D. Wood. R.D. Wood dug a
new canal to the closed foundry at Union Pond, and established a
successful cotton factory at the site. In 1866, he began
2 Cedar swamp lands are underlain with iron deposits formed by the chemical action of
vegetable-laden water on ferruginous strata in sluggish water. The deposits range from a soft
muddy consistency to one of stone. They are reddish-yellow in color, a variety of the mineral
limonite. ( Bertram LIppincott, An Historical Sketch of Batso. N.J. ,1933, p. 12; Charles
Boyer, Early Forges and Furnaces in N.J. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
1931, p. 2.
3 He was a part of the Wood family, "weighty" Quakers of Bridgeton and Philadelphia.
'^Moore, William Davis, The Development of the Cast Iron Pressure Pipe industry in the
Southern States. 1800-1938. pp. 12-13.
^Gushing and Sheppard, op. cit.. p. 633.
16
construction of a dam over the Maurice river to greatly improve the
water power in Millville.6 He also continued to operate his brother's
modern furnace with magnetic ore as an iron source and anthracite
coal as a melting medium. The business operated in Millville until
1900, then closed, as the center of iron manufacturing had moved to
Eastern Pennsylvania by 1850, and then on to the Middle West. R.D.
Wood and Company continues to thrive, and was responsible for
building the first skyscraper in Philadelphia for its offices about
1881.
Glass Factories -- Millville's Future
The glass industry would become one of the major industries
in South Jersey. It began in Millville before 1806. Five other glass
makers were established in the area before 1900.
James Lee built Millville's first glass factory on the Maurice
River at Buck Street in 1806, manufacuring only window glass.
Later the plant would become Whitall Tatum's "Glasstown", where
many types of glassware were made.
In 1814, it was owned by Gideon Scull; in 1827, by Burgin,
Wood and Joel Bodine; and in 1836, by Scattergood, Booth and
Company. By 1838, John Whitall had joined his brother-in-law, G. M.
Haverstick and William Scattergood in the glass business. All three
were prominent Philadelphia Quakers. John Whitall married into the
Tatum family, and Edward Tatum joined the firm in 1848. In 1845,
John's Whitall's brother, Franklin, took the company into its most
profitable stage.
In 1854, Franklin Whitall acquired the south Millville
Schetterville glass plant,'' and the business became more successful
than ever. By 1901, it was called Whitall Tatum and had offices in
^ The embankment was 2,000 feet long, covered a thousand acres and contained 100,000
yards of fill. 500 feet wide, the dam was built of red sandstone and cement and tapered from
11 feet at the base to 4 feet at the top. It provided greatly improved water power to 12
Millville industries and cost more than $100,000.
'^ Schetterville was begun by Frederick and Phillip Schetter of Baltimore in 1832. They set up a
window light furnace 1/3 mile south of Millville on diked, riverfront land.^ In 1844,
Schetterville was bought by Lewis Mulford, Millville's first banker. Mulford wanted to sell the
plant to Whitall Tatum at a good phce. In order to force them to buy the factory from him, he
comered the area wood market.
17
Philadelphia and New York. The company was famous for the high
quality of its moldblown glassware.
Glass manufacturing in Millville experieced enormous growth
between 1830 and 1900, beginning with a population of 150 persons
in 1830, and ending the century with more than 20 times as many
people.
In 1830, Millville consisted of seven stores, seven grist mills,
eight saw mills, a blast furnace, two glass factories, 60 homes and
two taverns. 8 By 1840, the population had grown to 1,200 people.
By 1883. there were ten flint glass furnaces in town employing more
than 1,512 people. By 1900, the three major glass works employed
more than 1500 hands, half of the working population.
Before the railroad came to town in 1863, Whitall latum glass
was packed in salt hay and shipped to Philadelphia and Baltimore by
sloop. 9 It went to New York by schoonerio and by the steam boat
Millville.
Millville's Heyday
By 1850, the success of Millville's glass and fisheries
industries was drawing heavy European immigration to the town.ii
Millville began to expand and build: The Millville National Bank was
chartered in 1857; gas came to the town in 1864. In 1866, Millville
was incorporated as a city of 5,000, and a mayor and a common
council were appointed. A waterworks was built in 1879, and a city
hall in 1881. A great majority of buildings still standing along High,
Main and Pine Streets in downtown Millville were built in this boom
period, which lasted from 1850 to 1918. The buildings were
generally made of brick, and many were built with bricks from
Burcham's brickyard.
The United States government began encouraging the growth of
industry in the area in 1883, by dredging the Maurice River to
provide access for water transportation. They stopped in 1892. By
^ Thomas Gordon, Gazeteer of the State of New Jersey, p. 180
^ The Ann and the Franklin.
^^ The Caroline and the Mary.
^ ^ The population was 2,332 persons.
18
1910, Whitall Tatum was the largest glass manufacturing concern
in tine world, with 1,925 employees. The cotton mill had 900
employees. Millville sand was being washed and shipped to towns
all across the U.S. and Canada. During the height of the glass
industry, (1860 - 1900) Millville was a magnet for workers from
economically depressed areas, including many from Virginia and
West Virginia.
Agriculture
The 18th century settlers in Cumberland County were part-
time farmers who spent their time cutting lumber for export, while
relying on wild marsh hay to feed their livestocl^. A tract of salt
marsh was sold as a necesary part of every farm and cost as much as
the farmland itself.
In 1815, Cumberland County upland farms were worn out, and
many local farmers left to find new lands in Ohio and the Midwest.i2
Those who stayed concentrated on improving the marshland. This
involved a variety of technologies for water management, including,
ditching, damming, draining. Dyked meadows were naturally
replenished by the nutrient-rich marsh, and produced good crops of
corn and upland hay without manure. ^^ Diking was time-consuming
and expensive, but it was more economical than clearing land, and
digging marl for fertilizer.
John Bartram, the famous botanist of Philadelphia, gave his
visitor, St. John de Crevecoeur, an explanation of the economics of
diking in 1782. De Crevecoeur had never heard of "banking" before,
and asked why anyone would put himself to so much trouble and
expense. Bartram's answer was that while the expense of bank
building was considerable, it was nonetheless very economical, as
the "produce of three years" repaid all the costs to the owner.
Bartram was a very enthusiastic member of his Philadelphia meadow
company.
^2 Gushing anf Sheppard, op. cit.. p 573.
^^For a discussion of dyking, see Section II, Chapter
19
In 1823 Cumberland County farmers founded a county
agricultural society "to promote agricultural improvements and
encourage family manufactures." An editorial in the local Bridgeton
newspaper at that time encouraged farmers to spend less of their
time lumbering and more time dyking. The enthusiastic editor
declared victory prematurely, it seems, writing,
" It was manifest to every one present that the increasing
agricultural spirit would very speedily supersede the toilsome
and unprofitable business of cutting timber"i4
The owners of farms on either side of the Burcham site were
first officers of the Agricultural society. The vice-president was
John Lanning, Jr. -- the owner of the farm down river from the
Burcham property, and the second was the owner of the farm upriver
from the Burcham's, Adrian Clunn, Janice and Jeanette Burcham's
uncle. There were fourteen other members. The society survived for
three years, putting on an annual county exhibitions and giving out
prizes for the largest yields, then disbanded in 1827. Maurice River
dikes declined beteen 1860 and 1880, troubled by disagreements
between the owners.
Agriculture returned to Cumberland County on a large scale in
1883, when extensive marl digging began in the area. Marl was a
more effective fertilizer than lime or manure, and the 1883
agricultural census shows many bushels of wheat, corn, oats and rye
were grown in the county that year, as well as potatoes, hay,
tomatoes, fruits and poultry. With time, berries and small fruits
would dominate Cumberland County farming as Millville's canning
industry was established.
In 1914, the Maurice River was diked again on both sides until
about two miles above Mauricetown where "salt marshes appear on
the right bank and continue to the mouth. . . ." On the left bank the
fast land continued to within 2 miles of the mouth, "and then salt
marsh extends to the bay shore. "15 The land was "very fertile and
^^ Gushing and Sheppard. op. cit.. p. 575.
^^ The U.S. Engineer's report, 1914.
20
the low meadows [had] almost all been reclaimed from the tide by
means of banks, and large quantities of hay [were] harvested and
cattle [were] grazed on them, while the land [was] all in a high state
of cultivation."
With fruit and vegetable farming and canning, Millville and
other area farms took on an industrial guise. By 1880, the Maurice
and the Cohansey rivers were becoming produce corridors to
Philadelphia.
21
Chapter II -- The Salt Marsh
For many seventeenth and eighteenth century pioneers in the
Delaware valley, salt marsh was an essential resource, indeed the
primary economic inducement for settlement in the region. Part-
time farmers and lumberers, they survived on their knowledge of
marshlands, heavily dependent on its three key industries: salt
haying, cedar mining, and dyke farming.
The chapter begins by discussing the economic importance of
marshland in Colonial New Jersey, then focuses on the technology of
the marsh and marsh industries. The last section addresses the
nineteenth century's changing view of marshland, including
enclosure, the legal status of marshland, and state-mandated dyking.
Salt marsh in Colonial New Jersev
In Cape May in1695, lands along the shore were the first to
sell. Shore land sold first for two reasons: one was its access to
water transportation, the other was its proximity to the high
marsh. 1 A 1682 court case illustrates the importance placed on
meadow land. In that case, purchasers of New Jersey lands
protested to the court that their land allotments were unfair, as
they had not been given a tract of meadow land. The Court agreed,
and ordered the West Jersey proprietors to make restitution to these
purchasers. The Commissioners awarded a tract of meadow on the
Rancocas River to each purchaser, at the proportion of four acres for
each hundred acres he had taken up. 2
In 1681, when the West Jersey Commissioners met to divide
lands in Burlington, N.J., they spent time carefully mapping out a
system that might avoid such disputes. They decided to divide the
land in tenths, giving each tenth a proportionate amount of frontage
on the Delaware River. Other rulings limited tracts along the river
^ Peter Wacker. Land and People. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, p. 303
2 H. Clay Reed, and George Miller, Eds. The Burlington Court Book: A Record of Quaker
Jurisprudence in West New Jersey 1680-1709. Washington: The American Historical
Association. 1944 pp. 3, 17.
22
to 40 perches (660 feet) of shoreline per one hundred acres, 3 and
forbade any one person from taking up land on both sides of a creek
in the same settlement.
Cattle in the Marsh
Salt marsh was essential pasture land for settlers beginning
in the seventeenth cetury because It freed them from the labor of
growing hay to feed their stock. This was a huge advantage,
especially in the first few years after arrival. In 1789, Jedidlah
Morse^ observed that N.J. sea coast inhabitants, "subsistfed]
principally by feeding cattle on the salt meadows, and by [eating]
fish of various kinds." This practice -- avoiding the work of
growing hay continued to appeal to South Jerseyans well into the
19th century. Thomas Gordon, in his 1834 Gazetteer, wrote:
"Adjacent to the Delaware bay . . . tracts of salt meadow,. . .
afford an abundance of coarse hay free ... to all who seek it. . . .
herds of cattle subsist, through the winter, upon these meadows.
The beaches of Gloucester, Cape May and Burlington Counties
were considered common pasture in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. South Jersey farmers ear-marked their cattle and loaded
them onto flat bottomed scows for the annual summer trip to the
beaches and sea islands. There the cattle roamed free among large
herds of wild cattle until the Fall, when their owners returned to
round them up.s
The first record of a South Jersey farmer letting his cattle
loose on the beach is from 1696, when Joseph Ludlam stocked the
beach at Sea Isle City with his cattle, after branding each with an
^ Wacker, op.cit.. p. 292.
^ Jedidiah Morse, American Universal Geography, 1789.
^ Weiss and Weiss. Early Industries, p 50 and Francis Bazley Lee. NJ as a colony and a state.
New York: Volume 1, pp. 279-288.
23
EL. Descendants of these herds survived on Ludlum's Beach until
1875.6
Another record is from Cape May in 1761, in Aaron Learning
M's^ diary ^ entry for November 6. He describes the cattle burning,
or branding that he had done "on Five-mile Beach, Nummy Island and
on Seven-mile Beach" that day.
Other records of cattle branding can be found in the first tax
lists of Gloucester County (1687). The Hopman family of Raccoon
Creek (now Swedesboro), ancestors of the Hopman/Hoffmans of
Maurice River were some of the men whose cattle ear brands were
recorded. Four Hopman ear brands were listed - one for Hans
Hopman and one for each of his three sons Frederick^, Andrew, and
John.
Branding was necessary because of cattle poaching on the
beaches. Some cattle were shot and carted off. Others were stolen.
Colonel Johnson's^o history discusses cattle stealing in early Salem
County, where rangers were appointed to make sure that no one
branded cattle unless a justice of the peace, constable or chief
ranger were present, under the penalty of a 20 pound fine.
Salt Hav Harvesting
Farmers not only relied on the marsh in the summer months,
however, they also harvested salt hay for winter feed. They began
cutting hay in the summer, and continued until after well after the
first frost. In the summer, they cut the hay by hand, using scythes.
They piled it up on wooden straddles and left it in the marsh until
6 Weygandt. Down Jersey. p.302, quoting Lewis Townsend Stevens, The History of Caoe May
County. 1897.
^ Learning was the owner of the mill tract on the Menantico and of the Clunn property (adjacent
to Burcham's. owned by Burcham's grandmother's family)
"Aaron Leaming 11 was a wealthy resident of Cape l\/1ay, a major landholder, surveyor and a
legislator. His diary and survey book still exist. The diary has been re-published by the Cape
May Historical Society. The survey book is kept in a vault at the Clerk's office.
^ Frederick was the father of the first owner of the Burcham property who bought 800 acres
on the east side of the Maurice in 1737.
10 Weygandt, Down Jersey p. 300, quoting. Colonel Johnson, Historical Account of the First
Settlement of Salem. 1839.
24
winter when their horses could walk on the frozen marsh safely, and
could pull the straddles up to the fast land.
As time went on in the Delaware region, salt haying became a
commercial industry in its own right, with technology that advanced
to large mowing machines. At first the mowers were pulled by
horses, which was a tricky business as the marsh was often too
soft, and the horses got mired. Other problems were the muskrat
holes, in which horses could easily break a leg, and the mosquitoes
and greenhead flies. Salt meadows were sometimes ditched and
drained though, a process that made mowing much easier on the
horses. Oxen were also used on the marsh.
By 1940, tractors and hay balers were in common use by
commercial salt hay farmers. Optimal conditions for successful
salt hay farmers, are high marsh with a dry surface and wet soil.
Farmers allow water in to every portion of their meadow at high
tide, then quickly remove the surface water with a series of well-
planned ditches.
25
5a\V H^N/
2«2.
Chapter II. Section II -- Technology of the Salt marsh
After the initial settlement period was over, South Jersey
pioneers turned to more technical ways of exploiting the marsh.
There are different opinions about where the techniques originated,
and when and where they were used, but it is generally agreed that
dyking, draining and plumbing the marsh had become second nature to
the inhabitants by 1740.
Location and description
South Jersey tide marsh extends along the tidal waters of the
state, including the Atlantic coast, the Delaware Bay shore, and the
Maurice, Cohansey and Delaware rivers. Between Trenton and Cape
May, there are 79,000 acres of salt marsh, all of which is found
south of Salem Creek. i About 51,000 acres of Cumberland County is
salt marsh, 8,000 acres of which are found in Millville and Maurice
River.
South Jersey marshland is land that can best be compared to a
sponge. Composed of a porous tangle of roots and vegetable matter,
it is a material that takes up water easily and holds it, drying
slowly by evaporation. Like a sponge, it also lets go of its water
quickly when given the chance.
Salt marsh consists of a 12-to-18 inch upper layer of roots
and vegetable matter, covered with grass and sod. Under the sod is
soft mud, ranging from six inches to thirty feet in depth. It is
underlain by firm gravely or sandy soil. The upper surface of the
marsh is close to the high water level.2
Types of Salt marsh: Low, Middle and High Marsh
Technically, there are three types of salt marsh, but only high
marsh, the third and final stage in the development of marshland, is
agriculturally useful. It is this type that was reclaimed, and this
type that produces grasses appropriate for livestock feed. The other
^ Weiss and Weiss, Some Early Industries in New Jersey, p. 47
2 George Cook, op.cit.. 1868 p 23.
27
two types of salt marsh are earlier stages in the development
process. They too produce grasses, but the grasses they produce are
agriculturally worthless.
The development of salt marsh
Low marsh, the first stage of marshland, exists on the coastal
edge, only inches above sea level. Regularly inundated by the tide,
low marsh is a place where only sedge grasses can survive. The
sedges grow there at low tide, then die and slowly rot. As they die,
they leave their deep, thick roots behind them. The roots trap and
hold mud and other organic matter in them, causing the surface of
the marsh to rise, and creating middle marsh, the second type of
marshland.
Middle marsh, the second stage of marshland, develops closer
inland. Its surface is slightly above the high water level, so it is
not inundated by the daily tide. It is, however, frequently wetted.
Coarse grasses like joint grass and 3 square grass (Scirpus
Amerlcanus) grow on its muddy root mass. It has a surface of
slippery mud and a resident population of fiddler crabs. A layer of
peat begins to form on top of the marsh in this period.
The third type of marsh -- high marsh -- is found closest to
the upland, well above the level of high tide. It is covered with
vegetation, and is rarely inundated by water. Tidewater covers
these marshes only during spring and fall high tides, or storm tides.
High marsh is the kind of marsh that develops along the
Maurice and Cohansey rivers, along Buckshutem, Menantico and
Manumuskin Creeks. Along the waterways, sharply defined banks
develop, banks which are higher at the water's edge and lower
toward the land. These riverbanks create a kind of natural basin
that holds water until it evaporates. It is in this damp, swampy
basin that vegetation rots and mosquitoes breed.
Other features of the third kind of salt marsh are a layer of
peat3 and Spartina Patens, or "salt grass." Livestock will eat this
'^ Peat is a compound formed from the slow decay of water-saturated plants in a cool
environment. In N.J., it forms in low swampy places, or in bays and inlets thiat are constantly
overflowed by the tides.
28
grass, but not happily. Historically, it was used for animal bedding,
as packing material for the glass industry, for insulation in
icehouses and to ship perishables in railroad cars. Today, salt hay is
used for mulch, covering seeds that can't germinate in the upland
region. Salt hay provides a saline environment, as salt remains in
the grass.
As the level of high marsh continues to rise, "black grass" or
Juncus Gerardi begins to grow. This is the salt grass that was
prized by early settlers and their livestock, and this grass sold for a
price significantly higher than the less tasty salt grass.
If the surface level of the marsh rises too high -- that is,
above the level that water can reach it -- it will die. This is
because circulating water is essential to healthy salt meadow.
Stagnant water causes the marsh to rot, and dry meadow produces
hay that is thin, wiry and short.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the terms "cripple"
and "spong" were used to refer to different types of marshland.
A cripple is a dense thicket of swampy or low-lying ground,
usually at the head of an unlumbered swamp of white cedar. In the
nineteenth century, at the height of the Pinelands lumbering
industry, cripples were associated with the many lumberers who
were jammed together living there. In one cripple, there were so
many children living there, that they tried to establish a school.'^ By
1914, the cripple populations were gone, though, as the cedar had
been clear cut.
John Krider, a hunter and gunshop owner in early 19th-century
Philadelphia who gave frequent neighborhood talks, gave a chilling
description of cripple for those who hadn't experienced it: "Every
step in the dark, black cover is deep black mire," he said, "strewn
with decaying driftwood and overgrown with stunted trees, reeds
and thick alder bushes. "^
^ Weygandt, op. cit.. p. 50.
^ Krider's Sporting Anecdotes, published in Philadelphia in 1853 (edited by H. Milnor Klapp,
based on a talk given by John Krider, proprietor of a gunshop on the northeast corner of 2nd
and Walnut Streets). Krider described cripple in his account of woodcock hunting near
Moorestown:
29
A cripple differs from a spong in that water always flows in a
cripple. In a spong the water only flows after it rains, so it is
usually only dannp, not wet. It is usually a long and narrow strip of
swampy land with water seeping slowly through it.
Dyking the Salt marsh: What is dvkina?
Dyking is the exclusion of high tidal water from marshland by
means of dams, and the subsequent admission of water at low tide.
Its purpose is to create farmland rich with vegetable mold. Marsh
converts to arable soil at the ratio of 6:1, that is, for every six
inches of turf, one inch of vegetable mold is created (after plowing).
Dyking causes the "fat" or water-bloated marsh to shrink. Its salt
grasses disappear, and it begins to resemble upland.
On the Burcham farm, salt hay no longer grows. There, the
dyked marsh behaves like upland or fresh water swamp, growing
sweet hay, corn and strawberries without much addition to the soil.
The river water there is more brackish than it was in the days of
universal diking. As the dikes washed out, the water returned to its
natural saltiness.
On the outer edges of the Burcham farm, phragmites abounds.
This is not a natural marsh grass, but one that humans introduced to
the marsh long ago. It takes over on land where earth has been
disturbed, and chokes out the salt hay.
How do dykes work?
A dyke is a mud bank that is built between the river and the
salt marsh. To build one, farmers dig a deep ditch on the salt marsh
side of the bank. This lowers the water table in the marsh by at
least 18 inches. At low tide, this large ditch receives water from a
series of smaller ditches that feed into it and fills with water. The
vacuum created by the draining tidal water opens a small drain built
in the bank -- the sluice gate. When the tide rises again, the
pressure of the rising tide closes the damper, and holds it shut until
low tide comes again. In this way, the property is not overflowed,
and it is well-drained, although still well-watered by the river. The
30
banks require weekly drain-clearing and rebuilding to function
properly.
Building a Dvke
Before the nineteenth century, dykes were built by hand with
shovels; later they were built by barge with cranes and large scoops.
Always, they were built in the shape of a flattened pyramid: each
side sloping down to the river at a 50-degree angle.
The base of the bank was built of stone, and was usually about
18 feet wide, designed to be six times the width of the top. The
walls were originally made of mud and were reinforced with many
different materials over the years, including oyster shells, timber
and masonry. Grass was placed on the top of the bank for stability,
the width there measuring about 3 feet. Generally, dikes were six or
eight feet tall, about three feet over the level of ordinary high tide.
Bank building was done between low and high tides, and never
during the spring, as the tides were too high.
Dyking Tools
Two tools used to by early bank builders were the mud skiver
and the heart shovel.^ Both were designed to make it easier to cut
through the mud of the marsh.
The mud skiver was a narrow instrument of about four feet in
length. It resembled a spade and a canoe paddle, and was typically
made of ash, maple or sassafras. It had a thin, 15-inch blade that
was about 5 inches wide, slightly concave at the front and tipped
with 2 or 3 inches of steel which were kept very sharp. It had a 5-
inch crossbar handle that was mortised to the shaft.
The skiver was used to cut strips of mud. Turning the skiver
around the sides of a hole in the marsh produced a strip of mud about
18 inches long. This was then thrown about 15 feet to the top of the
bank. The many strips of mud together constituted the bank.
The heart shovel was a similar instrument, but it was
constructed entirely of steel and was used for the toughest most
6 Sim, Robert J., Pages from the Past of Rural New Jersey. Trenton. N.J. : N. J. Agricultural
Society, 1949, p. 94.
31
tangled marsh. Its blade was pointed and frequently sharpened to
make it able to cut through the tangled roots of the marsh.
Marsh Cedar: Mining and Shingle Cutting
White Cedar stands in the South Jersey marshlands were the
basis of a major industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth century--
the shingle production industry. There was an insatiable demand for
cedar shingles for roofing and siding houses at that time.
White cedar grows in swamps located between 50 and 100
miles from the coast. Typically, cedar stands are less than 1,000
feet wide, and grow in peat streams underlain with sand. It takes at
least 60 years for a cedar tree to grow to 50 feet, and 80 years to
grow to 60 feet. Only red maple, black gum and sweetbay can sprout
beneath them. With the extirpation of the white cedar stands of
South Jersey, shingle cutters began retrieving cedar from the marsh.
Cedar miners began by probing the marsh with a progue -- a
straight iron six to eight feet long, which was sharp at one end and
looped at the other -- to find a sound piece of timber. After locating
a log, they used a sharp-edged spade to cut through the tangle of
roots and saw off a sample of the log to smell. (See illustration, p.
34.) Smelling the sample enabled the miners to determine whether
the log was desirable -- they were only interested in logs that had
been felled by the wind. These trees smelled sweeter than logs that
had been broken. ^
Miners cut good logs out of the swamp, then loosened them
from the mass with levers, and floated them up to the surface. The
logs were cut and split right in the marsh, as the coarse-grained
wood split straight. Shingles were cut in 18- or 35- inch blocks,
then split into smaller units called bolts with tools called a froe
and a froe club. Each bolt was split into 4 shingles, then dried in the
sun and shaved. The thick butt ends of the shingles were trimmed to
a beveled edge on a something known as a shingle butter. Shingles
^Weiss and Weiss. Some Early Industries in New Jersey, p 14, and Robert C Alexander, "The
Shingle Miners" Cape May County Magazine of History and Genealogy. June 1957, pp. 99-104.
32
were eighteen inches long, six inches wide and a half inch thick at
the butt end. tapering to a sharp edge.
When cedar mining was not too difficult, the owner of the
swamp would get one quarter of the profits as his share, otherwise
only one eighth. In 1875, at the peak of the demand, shingles sold
for $16 per thousand. An expert miner cut that many every week.
By 1890, cedar logs were increasingly difficult to find in the
swamps, and less sought after, as fire insurance companies began
insisting on the use of man-made, fireproof shingles. The cedar
mining industry went into permanent decline. ^
Ibid.
33
At left: ^\/Ld ski/err,
^\glif: Heoit" 5tiP^c|
^4-
Chapter II. Section III -- The History of Dyking
In 1685, English surveyor Thomas Budd noted that the
Delaware riyer yalley was full of "big, fat marsh land" that could be
banked to create meadows "as rich as the Thames River. "1
As he wrote, settlers on both sides of the river were doing
just that-- dyking lands to grow corn and hay on reclaimed meadow,
and grazing their milk cows on the new pasture. Cedar and sumach,
sheep laurel and spoonwood dominated the woods near the marshes,
and there was little for cows to feed on.
Diking land came naturally to the early residents of the area,
many of whom were from Holland or England, where there were long
traditions of dyking. Dutch farmers had been reclaiming lands in
Holland since before the year 1000 in a collective system organized
by the abbeys. 2 The British were draining the Fens in 1650.
Early dyking was done on a small-scale, cooperative basis. 3
Two or three neighbors joined together to bank a few hundred acres
at a time. Together, they shoveled mud and hauled stones along joint
property lines as part of a voluntary community activity. Conflicts
were few. With the growth of the region, though, land reclamation
began to be done on a large scale, in the English tradition. By the
turn of the 19th century, land reclamation was big business.
Dyking Laws
In 1711,4 the general assembly of the Royal Colony of New
Jersey enacted "An Act for enabling the Owners of the Meadows and
Marshes adjoining to and on both sides the creek that surrounds the
' Weiss and Weiss, Some Early Industries in N.J.. p. 47.
2 David Steven Cohen. Dutch American Farm , NYC and London: NYU Press, 1992. p 26. Cohen
quotes Audrey Lambert.
3 David Grettler, The Landscape of Reform: Society. Environment, and Agricultural Reform in
Central Delaware. Ph.D. dissertation at The University of Delaware, 1990. Grettler wrote
about New Castle County, Delaware.
^ Laws of the Royal County of New Jersey 1746-1760, in New Jersey Archives. Third
Series, Volume III compiled by Bernard Bush, Trenton, NJ: NJ State Library Bureau of
Archives and History.
35
island of Burlington to stop out the tide from overflowing them."
The act was amended in 1717 and 1751.
The 1751 amendment gave marsh owners the right to enter
their neighbor's property, to clear drains and repair neglected banks,
to use mud from the neighbor's property, and then, after they had
finished, to bring action against him for the expenses incurred.
This strong amendment coincided with a 1751 boom in the cost
of marshland. Israel Acrelius, the Swedish historian, discussed the
intense diking that was taking place at the time, when thousands of
acres were reclaimed along the Delaware and its tributaries. The
height of the boom in marshland prices came in 1751, when the price
of marshland rose to $600 an acre.
The price plummeted a few years later when a terrible storm
wracked the Delaware, then skyrocketed again in 1755, when "came
a great drought; no grass nor pasture was to be found, and . . . the
price . . . rose again. "s
Corporate Dyking
In 1788, the state of New Jersey passed a law allowing marsh
owners to form themselves into "meadow companies," or
corporations to bank and drain their lands. ^ In 1806, these meadow
companies were given more power, authorized to sell the property of
any neighbor who neglected his dikes and ditches and would not or
could not repay his debt within 5 days.
These laws were a response to the high cost and large scale of
diking that was being proposed. The state considered swamp
drainage in the public interest, and passed meadow company
legislation as way of accomplishing it without having to oversee it
themselves. In addition it gave them a way to tax those who
benefited most from the banks -- the owners or renters of river
lands.
^ Israel Acrelius, Description of the Former and Present Condition of the Swedish Churches in
what was called New Sweden. Stockholm: Harberg and Hasselberg, 1759, p. 154.
reprinted in Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Volume XI published by the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1874, p. 154.
^ Gushing and Sheppard, op. cit.. p.331-332.
36
In some cases, land speculators were behind the new push for
diking laws; in others, it was local people eager to lower the costs
of diking. In general, advocates were wealthy landholders for whom
the marsh companies meant lower costs and higher profits/
Salem County
Extensive dyking was done in Salem County by the middle of
the eighteenth century, but according to historical tradition, the
practice began in the region at the end of the "sixteenth" (meaning
17th) century. 8 According to Cushing and Sheppard, legend has it
that banks were built on Salem river in the1600's, and cultivated to
rice.
The dykes of Salem County were considered very advanced in
1780, when they were singled out for praise by John Bartram, the
celebrated botanist of Pennsylvania. Bartram lived on a farmstead
that had been formerly owned by a Swede, and he was extolling the
advantages of diking the Schuylkill to his visitor, St. John de
Crevecoeur. Crevecoeur had asked, ". . . to what purpose is so much
expense and so much labour bestowed?" Bartram responded, "no
branch of industry was ever more profitable. . . . the Schuylkill. . .
[was] once ... a putrid swampy soil, useless either for the plough or
for the scythe." But now, the Schuylkill was dyked, and Bartram was
an enthusiastic member of a meadow company: ". . . we yearly pay to
the treasurer of the company a certain sum. . . ." he said, "[and] many
acres of meadows have been rescued from the Schuylkill. . . ."]
Bartram said exceptional banking could be seen in South
Jersey. "Our brethren in Salem. . . have carried the art of banking to
a still higher degree of perfection," he said.^
So, while it is clear that meadow companies were operating in
New Jersey informally in the early seventeenth century, the 1788
law meant that meadow companies began to be registered. The first
^ David Grettler, op. cit. p.
8 Cushing and Sheppard, op. cit.. p. 331. Cushing and Sheppard seem to mean the 1600's when
they refer to the 16th century, the 1700's when they refer to the 17th century
^ Hector St. John de Crevecoeur Letters from an American Farmer. London: J.M. Dent and
Sons, 1926. p. 182.
37
company registered in Salem County formed in 1794. The 1806
amendment brought more registration and incorporation of
companies, but most were not newly formed groups. They were
groups that had clearly been operating for some time, as their banks
had already been built. The passage of meadow company laws was
more a response to the problems of joint projects and the
proliferation of dyking than it was an establishment of a new
practice.
Meadow Company Oraanization^o
Meadow companies were created when two-thirds of the
residents of a stretch of river petitioned the state. Permission
granted, all those living along the marsh were required to join the
effort -- tenants as well as owners -- regardless of whether they
wanted their land diked and regardless of the cost.
The law required residents to meet soon after the corporation
was established, with a quorum of two-thirds of the residents
required for it to be legal. At their first meeting, they were to
establish an official meeting time and place for their meetings, and
to name officers. The companies were far from democratic
organizations, however, as votes were allocated on the basis of land
ownership. The wealthier landowners who had many more votes to
cast than the poorer ones, easily dominated the decision making and
leadership.
Responsibilities of Officers
As a meadow company began operations, the first task of its
officers was to assess the meadows of each member, and to assign a
proportion of the costs of maintenance to each. Afterward, it was
their job to monitor the banks, to hire workers to perform repairs,
to send out bills, and settle disputes. They also brought action
against their neighbors for payment. This sometimes involved
' ^ I am indebted to Stutz, Sebold and Grettler, as well as records of New Jersey legislation
and meadow companies ledgers and records for this characterization.
38
miniscule transactions between meadow owners, often involving the
re assignment of only a few acres or a fraction of an acre.
The Nineteenth Century
In the nineteenth century, entrepreneurs were beating the drum
of universal dyking, predicting that lowlands worth a dollar an acre
could become worth $50, and that "mosquitoes and putrefaction"''''
could be eliminated. New Jersey legislators agreed, voting to levy
this limitless tax on marsh dwellers. Unfortunately for their poorer
constituents, who were just marginally able to hold on to their land,
these taxes could be higher than the cost of their property, and for
small-time dykers who were able to handle their own properties,
sharing costs increased rather than decreased their expenses.
Conflicts were unavoidable.
Meadow companies must be seen in the broader context of the
nineteenth century -- a time when the traditional concept of
common land was eroding. This changing view of property rights
was hardly limited to dyking. The fence laws and the fishing and
hunting restrictions passed at that time were also a part of this
revolution. The new view of property went against English and
medieval common law precedent that had once been cherished in this
new land.
In the nineteenth century, "swine laws were passed to protect
property owners from the half-starved pigs of the landless poor", as
free-ranging hogs that rooted up pasture land, were "antithetical to
emerging sensibilities about privilege, property and authority. "^ 2
Ironically, 19th century Americans were enclosing common land and
disenfranchising their poor, the very same process that had driven
their ancestors from their homes in Europe in the 18th century.
In 1860, land-reclamation advocate Henry French echoed the
sentiments of his age in his answer to those who thought that diking
laws were unfair. He based his argument on the unfairness of the
fence laws:
''"' Bruce Stutz, Natural Lives. Modern Times. New York, Crown Publishers, 1992. pp. 66-72,
Stutz quotes David Grettler's research in Delaware legislative petitions.
^2 Bernard Herman quoted in Stutz, op. cit.. pp. 66-72
39
"If we may lawfully compel a person to fence to exclude the
cattle of other persons, or, if he neglect to fence, subject him
to their depreciations, without indemnity, as is done in many
States; or if we may compel him to contribute to the erection
of division fences , of a given height, though he has no animal
in the world to be shut in or out of his field, there would seem
to be equal reason, in compelling him to dig half a division
ditch for the benefit of himself and his neighbor. "13
French's argument underscored the parallel between fence
laws and dyking laws, as both were based on the English common law
tradition. Traditionally, animals had been allowed to graze freely
and farmers had to pay to fence their crops if they did not want
them eaten by free-ranging cattle and pigs.
By placing the responsibility for fencing on the farmer, the
common law tradition burdened him financially, as fencing was
expensive, typically costing the farmer's one month's profits per
year.'"'* Marshland, like other open pasture, was considered common
property in early America. As the nineteenth century unfolded,
however, property owners began to enclose their marshland for
private use, to improve it and to demand that the state compel their
neighbors to do the same.
The enclosure of marshland was a blow to those who had no
land, as the enclosure of the marshes meant the loss of public
domain for trapping, hunting, and fishing, as well as the loss of
pasture land to fatten their cows and pigs. (Horses and sheep never
grazed on the marsh, as they were susceptible to hoof rot).
Fencing and dyking laws were sometimes related, and
ordinances to prevent cattle and swine from grazing on the marshes
began to be passed. A Delaware ordinance passed at the end of the
18th century stated, "no swine shall be allowed to run at large
"■3 Henry F. French, Farm Drainage. New York: C.M.Saxton, Barker and Co., 1860, p. 346.
"■4 Clarence H. Danhof, "The Fencing Problem in the 1850's" Agricultural History 18 (October
1944) pp. 168-86, quoting The American Farmer.
40
(unless . . . yoked, to prevent them from. . . breaking through fences)
on any of the unimproved lands, meadows or marshes."'' ^
In other parts of the East, fence laws were also changing.
Farmers were no longer required to fence animals out of their crops;
instead, livestock owners were required to contain them. In the
West, where stockmen outnumbered farmers, these new laws were
less common. ■> 6 There, pockets of the "open range" tradition still
exist today. Generally, these pockets exist in the poorer, more
sparsely settled parts of the United States, such as the western
rangelands or the woods of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains.
Class Conflict over Dvkingi^
In nineteenth century Delaware, as in New Jersey, the effects
of the enclosure and reclamation laws on the poor were severe, and
they tended to oppose meadow company legislation. David Grettler
found that the advocates of large-scale marsh improvement in New
Castle County Delaware were more than twice as wealthy as their
opponents, likely to own more than two farms of the most valuable
marshland, and less likely to live along the marsh than were those
who opposed the legislation.
Opponents were more likely to live on a fixed income --
widows and children and others. Typically, they owned only one
farm, and one-in-five of them lived on probated property. The
petitions of two neighbors -- Ann Roberts and William Frazer
illustrate the point of view of small property owners
disenfranchised by 1824 meadow company legislation in Delaware:
Ann Roberts
Ann Roberts complained to the Delaware legislature in 1824,
as the Morris Branch Marsh company began banking her farm. She
was a widow in poor health with two children, one of whom was also
sick, and she knew that what was left of her dowry would not cover
^^ Ordinance quoted in Bruce Stutz, Natural Lives. Modern Times. New York: Crown, 1992,
pp. 66-72
^^ J.B Jackson "A New Kind of Space" in Landscape. Vol. 18, no.1, Autumn 1969 and
"•^ Grettler, op. cit., p. 188.
41
the taxes for this improvement. The new meadow company's
assessment, she wrote, would force her to sell her farm.
In 1827, Roberts' wrote to the Delaware legislature a second
time. She complained that she had been unable even to rent out her
farm to pay the meadow company taxes, as no one would lease a
farm that came with such high marsh improvement taxes. She said
she had paid more in marsh improvement taxes than her farm was
worth, and railed against the legislature, and her wealthy neighbor
Abraham Pearce, the head of the Morris Branch Marsh Company,
saying, "If Mr. Pearce wishes to have a bank, set him to bank in his
own marsh."
Another petition explains the reaction to dyking laws from a
person who was not as poor as Mrs. Roberts, but was nonetheless
unhappy with the new Morris Branch Marsh Company.
William Frazer
In 1824, Frazer protested that taxes levied by the Morris
Branch Marsh Company would prevent him from being able to afford
to maintain land he had already improved. Frazer had banked 200
acres of land at his own expense, but would be required nonetheless
to pay marsh taxes to "marsh" other people's land.'is
■■^ Ibid., p 189.
42
Chapter II. Section IV -- The Burcham area Meadows
Millville Meadow Banking Company
The first record of large-scale, English-style diking in
Millville is found in the Cumberland County "Roads" book. This 1819
meadow company charter begins by referring to the state's 1808
diking mandate, then announces the creation of the Millville Meadow
Banking Company, which began operating in June of 1819.
In greater Cumberland county, some very large dyking projects
were enthusiastically undertaken immediately after the 1808 law
was passed. In 1809, for example, two men paid a great deal of
money to embank the entire east side of the Maurice from the mouth
up the river for 15 miles, enclosing several thousand acres. But
dyking was always an expensive gamble, and these banks were
destroyed by the "September Gale" of 1821.
Another example of large scale diking was undertaken in 1808
by the Maurice River Banking Company. ^ They banked the east side of
the Maurice, beginning one mile north of Dorchester and running up
the river to Mauricetown, comprising 176.5 acres of land. They
also drained a second tract of 360 acres on the west side of the
Maurice in Commercial Township in 1808.
Heirs of Learning Meadow Company
By 1826 the Leaming family owned many acres of Millville
marshland near the Burcham farm. In that year, they formed their
own meadow company to guarantee the maintenance of this stretch
of Maurice river meadows. This did not involve new banks, as the
agreement makes clear that there are old banks on the property,
banks "originally thrown by the Langstaff's, a local family who must
have been leasing the land.
^ George M. Warren, Tidal Marshes and their Reclamation Washington, D.C.: (prepared under
the direction of C. G. Elliott, Chief of Drainage Investigations) Government Printing Office,
1911.
43
The agreement begins by citing New Jersey's meadow company
law of 1788 and its 1806 supplement, 2 then surveys the meadows
covered by the agreement -- four contiguous farms on the Maurice
known as the "Longstaff places. "^
The agreement specifically stated that any piece of land
within these bounds that was sold, would be sold with the assurance
that all the owners would jointly maintain the banks.
Mid Nineteenth-Century Diking
D.M. Nesbit, New Jersey state geologist, visited the banked
meadows of Maurice River in 1860 for the state report. His report
was favorable : Maurice river banks had been producing heavy and
regular crops without manure for many years, even during the
drought. Farmers were rotating crops, beginning by planting timothy
for five or six years, then planting corn. Fertilizer was also applied
to these banks: fifty bushels of shell lime applied to the sod with
each plowing. In 1860, the corn crop from Millville meadows ranged
from 50 to 100 bushels per acre and the crops of hay ranged from 2
to 3 tons.4
2 Th9 agreement is found in the papers of tlie settlement of Parsons Learning's estate and in tfie
Miscellaneous Book at Bridgeton.
Tfiey agreed to "appoint a manager of said bank or banks in the same manner as directed
in the second section of a supplement to an act entitled "AN ACT TO ENABLE THE OWNERS OF
TIDE SWAIVIP AND IVIARSHES TO ItVIPROVE THE SAME" PASSED THE 29TH DAY OF NOVEMBER
A.D. 1788 SUPPLEMENT PASSED THE 27TH DAY OF NOVEMBER A.D. 1806 REVOLUTIONARY
LAWS P. 529
The duties, fees and penalties of said manager shall be regulated by the second and third section
of the aforementioned supplement and the expenses attending such duties shall be recoverable in
any court where the same may be cognizable with costs from the person or persons whose duty
it was to do and perform such repairs."
3 The farms were named for the Langstaff family who are described in early deeds and in the
1819 meadow company agreement as the first builders of the banks -- "old banks thrown by
the Langstaffs," and other references. Presumably, the Langstaffs were leasing the meadow
from Aaron Leaming at the time they were building banks along the Maunce. The name appears
in the Cape May Quaker meeting records. Birth and death lists from 1728-1841, with births
listed for the family from 1736-1801. It also appears in the meeting minutes in 1771.
In 1793, four Longstaff men and their families were living in Maurice River. The men
were listed on the List of Militia and Exempts of Maurice River. (This list is repnnted on p. 28
of Vanaman). They were Thomas. James, Samuel and Malichi Longstaff.
4 D.M. Nesbit, TIHb Marshes of thn I Inited States. Washington, D.G.: Govemment Printing
Office, 1885, p. 19.
44
Both of these large scale projects on the Maurice were
destroyed by storms in 1879.
Nesbit's state report on the Maurice river meadows in 1885
was less positive. The meadows still covered thousands of acres,
but many were lying out. The banks were maintained being
maintained by hand, amid many disagreements among the owners
about repairs. Owners were selling exclusive privileges to trap and
shoot muskrats on their meadows.
Maurice River meadows were banked again in 1906, and corn,
strawberries and potatoes were grown there. ^ The 1909 state
report listed meadow prices at $70 per acre. The meadows produced
136 bushels of corn per acre that year.
^ In 1909, those owners were Howard Compton, Alfred Lupton, Richard Camp, Charles T.
Grassman. George T. Blissard, D.W. Boggs, and Eliza West.
45
^
Chapter III, Section I -- The Swedish History of the Delaware
The Swedish history of the Burcham farm dates to 1737, when
it was part of a 1 ,000-acre family compound on the east side of the
Maurice River. i There, the Hopmans raised cattle, cut wood, and
joined together to dyke the marshland.
"Maurice River" was a large and loosely defined place that
refered to many miles of marshland along the Maurice river and its
small creeks. It was the home of Swedes who felt displaced from
their homes in Delaware, and Pennsylvania by the arrival of the large
numbers of Quaker settlers. They had began slowly drifting down to
the river in the late seventeenth century to cut lumber. Gradually
they built their isolated farmsteads along the New Jersey rivers,
and began to feel at home again, recreating the pioneer culture that
their parents and grandparents had developed on the shores of the
Delaware.
This Section begins the Swedish history of the Burcham
property by describing the political history of the Swedes on the
Delaware, as it was the struggle for control of the colony that
created the strange deed history of the area and the extra-legal
land-use pattern found in Maurice River. This political history is
also essential to understanding the Swedes consistent pattern of
moving to the frontiers of the region. The Swedes were, after all.
the people who settled the region and lost it.
The Fight for the Delaware
The history of the Delaware valley involves the struggle of
three countries -- England, Holland and Sweden - for the profits of
the river's lucrative Colonial fur and lumber trade.
The conflict began in 1609, when the Dutch first claimed the
region because Henry Hudson, the famous English sea captain, had
sailed up the Delaware river in 1609 in a Dutch ship. On his return
trip, however, Hudson stopped off in his native England, and was
detained there. The British hoped to keep Hudson's discoveries to
^Thal is 800 acres between the 2 creeks and another 200 above the Menantico.
47
themselves, sending Hudson back across the ocean to do some more
exploring. When Hudson's Dutch crew and their ship returned to
Holland without him, and reported on their travels, the struggle for
the Eastern coastline of America began.
By 1623. the Dutch had established a lucrative international
trade route that was based in the Dutch colony at Manhattan, or New
Amsterdam. It was directed by the Dutch West India Company, a
monopolistic trade organization that was in tight control of the
American trade, and eager to include the lands south of them in their
market. The Governor of The New Netherlands, Cornelius Mey, sailed
up the Delaware in 1623. He rounded the tip of New Jersey, named
the two capes for himself -- one he called Cape Mey, the other Cape
Cornelius -- and established a permanent trading post at the mouth
of Timber Creek (Gloucester, N.J.). This was Fort Nassau, the first
military outpost in the region.
Both the Dutch and the English tried to establish colonies on
the Delaware soon afterward, but both failed. The first Dutch
attempt was made in 1631, when the Dutch West India Compny
founded Swanendael at Lewes Creek, Delaware. It was gone by
1633. The first attempted English colony in the region was at
Pennsauken Creek. It failed in 1634.
New Sweden
The first permanent European settlement on the Delaware was
Swedish. It was built at present day Wilmington, Delaware in 1638.
The colony was far from wholly Swedish, however. It had been
chartered by the Swedish King in conjunction with independent Dutch
merchants who were trying to find a way to break the Dutch West
India Company's monopoly on the American fur trade. The Dutch
merchants put up half the money to establish a Swedish settlement
on the Delaware; the Swedish King put up the other half.
Minuit and his Dutch crew guided the Swedish settlers to a
place (now Wilmington, Delaware) that they knew to be an
advantageous spot for a colony. Wilmington was far from the
control of the Dutch West India Company at Manhattan, and was
48
located in a valley with a promising fur trade and a westward route
into the interior, where furs were even more abundant. 2
Minuit began by purchasing land from the Indians, as the
Swedes had no claim to the area, buying two strips of land on the
west bank of the Delaware. He erected a fort at Wilmington, and
named it for Christina, the Swedish Princess. In 1638, he returned
to Europe, leaving only 25 Swedes on the shores of the Delaware. 3
In 1640, a second boatload of settlers was sent to the colony,
commanded by Peter Hollander Ridder, a Dutch man who was serving
in the Swedish army. Governor Ridder bought more land from the
Indians, including the territory from the Schuykill to the falls at
Trenton and the land from Cape Henlopen to Bomten's point. In the
Spring of 1641, he bought South Jersey -- including all the land from
Raccoon Creek to Cape May."* Dutch investors pulled out of the
money-losing venture in 1641, and the colony came under the sole
control of Swedish government. Governor Ridder stayed on until
1643.
English Puritans in Salem
In 1641, English settlers made a second attempt at settlement
in the lower Delaware, landing about fifty Puritan families from
New Haven on South Jersey soil, at Salem Creek.
Their leader. Captain Nathaniel Turner bought land on Salem
Creek from the Indians, much to the displeasure of the Governor of
New Sweden, Colonel Peter Hollander Ridder, who sailed down to
Salem to protest the proposed English colony on Swedish soil.
Turner ignored his protest, and the English Puritans settled in Salem
In 1642.
Soon after they arrived, the Dutch demanded that the Puritans
swear allegiance to Holland. They did so. Next, the Swedes came
across the river to demand allegiance to the Swedish crown. The
2 John A. Munroe, Colonial History on the Delaware, p. 18.
^ John A. Munroe. History of Delaware, Newark, Delaware:University of Delaware Press,
1979 p. 21.
^ The English, who wanted to invalidate the sale, made a point of buying the same tract from
the Indians at a later date.
49
English swore again. Lord Edmund Plowden of England was the next
to arrive, armed with his land grant from King Charles, demanding
that the Puritans swear allegiance to him. They did so.^
Sometime after 1643, the colony was destroyed by the Dutch,
probably because the Puritans were cutting in on the fur trade. The
Puritans blockhouse was burnt to the ground, and the settlers moved
on. Some returned to New Haven, but most were unaccounted for, and
L.Q. Elmer, the nineteenth century Cumberland County historian,
believes some of them may have moved down to the Maurice.
Soon after the Dutch had driven the Puritans from Salem, the
Swedish built a fort on the site of their settlement. Fort Elfsborg
was located at a narrow in the Delaware, and it gave the Swedes
control over the ships entering the river. Johan Printz, the new
Governor of New Sweden, began forcing Dutch ships to lower their
flags at Salem, and have their vessels searched.
The Dutch were in a difficult position politically. The Swedish
colony was a large thorn in their side, but there was little they
could do about it. They could not attack the Swedes, as the two
countries were military allies. Instead, Stuyvesant began a
campaign to provoke the Swedes to attack him. The first move in his
game was to reposition the Dutch fort on the river.
Stuyvesant abandoned Fort Nassau, and moved his stronghold
to New Castle, Delaware in 1651, cutting off Swedish access to the
ocean. He hoped to draw the Swedes into war, but Governor Printz
did not take the bait. Printz returned to Sweden in 1653. In 1654, a
new Swedish governor was sent to the Delaware. Governor Johan
Rising arrived on the Delaware with a large Swedish fleet and
immediately captured the small Dutch garrison at New Castle.
Peter Stuyvesant, the Governor of New Netherlands, bided his
time until the Swedish warships had left, then made his move,
swooping down from Manhattan to take all of New Sweden in 1655.
The Dutch would be in control of the colony for the next ten years.
5 Joseph S. Sickler. The History of Salem County. N.J.. Salem: Sunbeam Publications, 1937, p.
8.
50
The English
In England at this time, the restoration of the British
monarchy brought a new focus on trade and colonization, and a
heightened desire to seize Dutch holdings in the mid-Atlantic region.
The English crown sent four warships to Manhattan in 1664 to seize
the Dutch colonies. This gave the British control over the whole
eastern seaboard. New Amsterdam was renamed New York, after
Charles H's brother and heir, the Duke of York (later James II), to
whom Charles granted the lands between the Connecticut and the
Delaware rivers.
A new set of laws, known as the Duke's laws, were
immediately imposed on this large territory by Governor Nichols, the
new governor of New York, it would be ten years before a copy of the
laws reached the settlements on the Delaware, however.
Nonetheless, all deeds bought, sold or given during the earlier Dutch
and Swedish periods were immediately in dispute. Needless to say,
the Dutch and Swedish settlers were unhappy with this turn of
events.
The Long Finn Rebellion
By 1669, rumors of a plot among the Swedes and Finns had
come to the attention of the English leaders. The leader of the
insurrection was Marcus Jacobson, who was known as the "Long
Finn." He was arrested and tried in English courts in New York for
inciting the Swedes to revolt against their English rulers. He was
whipped, branded, and sold into servitude in the West Indies. His
supporters were fined.
The Dutch rebellion against the English was more successful.
In 1672, they re-conquered the Delaware region, then lost it again in
1674, as part of the peace treaty that ended the Anglo-Dutch wars in
Europe. New grants were executed. The Duke of York's new land
grant, like the old one, did not mention lands south of the Delaware
River.
51
New Jersey
The Duke of York granted the colony of Nova-Caesaria or New
Jersey to his friends, John, Lord Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret in
1664. The men hoped to make large profits from trading, land sales
and rents. Before 1665, they had begun promoting settlement
aggressively, promising prospective colonists civil and religious
freedom and 120 acres outright to every man who emigrated before
January, 1665, with a 120 acre bonus for each able man servant he
brought with him, and 60 acres for every weaker servant or slave. ^
Berkeley and Carteret's grant was split in half by 1676, when
the many proprietors of New Jersey came together to form
themselves into a government. Berkeley was assigned the lower half
of the territory, which was called West Jersey (South Jersey), ^ and
his land was divided into 100 shares, ^ and put up for sale. It sold so
quickly that a Proprietary Council had to be elected within two
years to take over the management of West Jersey.
Cumberland and Cape May Counties came under the control of
the Proprietors in 1688, when Daniel Coxe bought them from the
Indians. His lands were surveyed in 1691.
John Fenwick
In 1674, before the division of Jersey, two English Quakers --
John Fenwick and Edward Byllynge -- bought Lord Berkeley's half of
N. J. ("West Jersey"). One year later, Fenwick and about 150 Friends
from England crossed the ocean to settle at Salem, N. J. There they
found a small fishing village of about 20 persons.
After intense legal wrangling about the validity of Fenwick's
deed, Fenwick was awarded 1/10 of West Jersey in 1677, and
William Penn and two others were made trustees of the other
^ Rudolph J. Vecoli, The People of New Jersey, Princeton, N.J.: D. Van Nostrand and Co., 1965,
p. 6; Samuel Smith, op, cit.. p. 512.
^ By 1674, Berkeley had re-sold his half to English Quakers -- Fenwick and Byllynge.
Byllynge, who was bankrupt, sold 9/10 of West Jersey to Wm. Penn and his associates,
Fenwick retained the other tenth, and West Jersay came under the control of Quakers.
^ John Fenwick, the Quaker settler of Salem, NJ, and one of the men who bought Ber1<eley's
share of N.J. in 1674, owned 1/10 of the Prophetors lands after 1677. The other 9/10ths of
West Jersey were under the control of William Penn.
52
9/10ths of West Jersey, which meant that Penn was now in charge
of most of the Delaware region.
In 1681, Charles II had granted a large tract (the state of
Pennsylvania) to William Penn in repayment of a debt he owed Penn's
deceased father. By 1682, Penn was granted another large tract by
the Duke of York -- present day Delaware. With these two grants,
the end of New Sweden on the Delaware was accomplished, as 23
boats of English Quaker settlers followed soon after, landing on the
Delaware In 1682. William Penn began a campaign of trying to get
marhlands for his new settlers. This would mean displacing the
Swedes, who had early settled along the rivers.
53
Chapter III. Section II -- The first colonists at New Sweden
Between 1637 and 1655, Sweden sent thirteen expeditions to
the Delaware, transporting a total of about 800 passengers to their
new colony. Of these prospective settlers, only about 600 actually
reached the colony. i The first boatload left 24 men and a fort on the
shores of the Delaware near Wilmington in 1638. Some of the men
were paid monthly wages by the trading company that financed the
settlement. Others were fortune seekers, told they were free to
settle and live in the country as long as they pleased.
The next six boatloads of settlers included artisans, a
minister, shipbuilders, millers, tobacco growers, and women and
children. Some were bonded servants, deserters from the Swedish
army, or debtors. Many were ethnic Finns actively recruited for the
colony from the unsettled forest country north and west of
Stockholm. For these Finnish Swedes, trading one forest for another
seemed less a hardship than an opportunity. Generally, though, the
early settlers were characterized by a stubborn independence that
would show itself at many junctures of their history over time.
Their desire to be left alone, and their resistance to unresponsive
government began to show itself under the autocratic leadership of
Johan Printz, second governor of the colony.
Johan Printz
During Printz's period as governor (1643-53), "malefactors and
vicious people" were treated harshly-- used as slaves to labor on the
fortifications, and kept in chains. 2 The settlers were forbidden to
trade with the Indians, even for food, despite their extreme need, as
Printz wanted to control all the profits of the Indian trade for the
company investors. The hardship in the colony was the result of
neglect by the Swedish government who was preoccupied with the
war at home. They sent no provisions or barter goods to the colony
^ Peter Craig, op. cit.. p. 2
^Acrelius, Israel. A History of New Sweden, translated from the Swedishi and with an
introduction by William M. Reynolds, published in the Memoirs of the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania volume XI, Philadelphia: 1874, p. 42.
54
for a period of six years. In 1653. twenty two of the Swedes
rebelled against Printz, presenting a petition against him. Settlers
fled into the wilderness, moved down to Maryland or Virginia, or
returned to Sweden. 3
By 1654, when new Governor Johan Rising arrived, many of the
settlers had moved on, and the colony^ had been depleted to 70
settlers. Rising brought with him about 200 new Swedish settlers,
and a few Dutch and German servants. ^ The colony began to be
revitalized. In 1654, the population was recorded at 368, including
about 50 Dutch and Swedish soldiers at Fort Casimir (New Castle).^
Hans Hopman, patriarch of the Hopman clan, was one of those
soldiers.
In 1656, another 100 Swedish men and women immigrated to
New Sweden, completely unaware that the colony had been taken
over by the Dutch in 1655. Sixty two more Swedes arrived in 1663.
During this period, the Swedes lived fairly autonomously under Dutch
rule, known as the "Up-River nation", they were governed by their
own courts, protected by their own militia, and were free to
practice their own religion, trade with the Indians and to keep their
lands.
"^ Federal Writer's Project, W.P.A., The Swedes and the Finns in New Jersey, introduction by
Dr. Amandus Johnson. Bayonne. N.J.: Commission to commemorate the 300th anniversary of
the settlement of the Swedes on the Delaware, D. Stewart Craven, chairman, 1938, p. 59.
'* Albert Cook Myers, editor, Narratives of Early Pennsylvania. West Jersey and Delaware.
New York: Scribner's, 1912. p. 133.
^Carol E. Hoffecker, Delaware. A Bi-centennial History, Nashville: American Association for
State and Local History and W.W. Norton, NY, 1977. p. 17.
^ Rudolph J. Vecoli, op. cit.. p. 2.
55
Chapter III. Section III - New Sweden
The dally life of early Swedish communities is also relevant to
our understanding of the Burcham farm, as it provides us with a
picture of Swedish customs, agricultural practices and industries,
and contributes to our understanding of the motivations behind the
first permanent settlers on the farm.
A fairly clear picture of life in New Sweden can be drawn from
the accounts of Thomas Paschall and Peter Kalm, two writers whose
journals comment extensively on the Swedes, although they are
written from widely different perspectives. Paschall was a 1682
immigrant from Bristol, England, who lived next to the Swedes at
Kingsessing. He was a part of the heavy English immigration to the
Delaware in 1682. an immigration that resulted from William Penn's
charters for Pennsylvania (1681) and the three lower counties that
make up present day Delaware (1682).i
Kalm was a Swedish naturalist from the University of Abo,
Finland, who was sent to the new world in 1745 to gather
information about plant and animal species for the scientific
community back home.
Kalm described the first homes built by the Swedes in the new
world:
"The houses which the Swedes built when they first settled
were very poor. The whole house consisted of one little room,
the door of which was so low that one was obliged to stoop in
order to get in. As they brought no glass with them they were
obliged to be content with little holes before which a
moveable board was fastened. . . .
The chimneys were masoned in a corner, either of gray stone,
or in places where there were no stones, of mere clay, which
they laid very thick in the center of the house." 2
1 Twenty three ships of English Quakers arrived on the Delaware on August 24, 1682.
2 Kalm, op. cit.. p 272
56
The homes were built along the water, lands that were coveted
by Englishmen like Paschal!. Paschall observed that the riverlands
were lands that the "Sweads prize much, and many people will want.
. . ."3 From this simple observation would come much of the Swedes
future trouble.
Clothing
One adaptation to the Delaware that Swedish settlers made
early on was in their customary style of dress. They were without
frequent contact with Europe, and unable to obtain European fabrics,
so they incorporated elements of Native American attire into their
wardrobes. The men wore "waistcoats and breeches" made of animal
hides, and little fur caps, worsted stockings, and home made shoes.
The women also wore leather -- making their "jackets and
petticoats" of animal skins. Their beds, too, excepting the sheets,
were made of bear and wolf pelts. ^
Peter Kalm wrote that Swedes who had lived for years in the
distant provinces had taken on more than just the native American
style of dress: they had also adopted Indian lifestyle and thoughts.
He wrote, "Europeans who have lived for years in the distant
provinces near and among the Indians grow so like them in their
behaviour and thoughts that they can only be distinguished by their
color;"5 and also, "The Swedes themselves were accused of being
already half Indians when the English arrived in the year 1682. . . ."
Thomas Paschall, wrote that the Swedish women "make most
of the Linnen cloath they wear. . . "^ and that "they weer but
ordinarily cloathd; but since the English came they have gotten fine
deaths and are going proud. . . y
^ Albert C. Myers, op. cit.. p. 254, from "Letter of Thomas Paschiall, written from
Pennsilvania the last day of January, 1682/3"
4 Kalm, op.cit.. p.272
5 Kalm, op. cit.. p. 226
6 Albert C. Myers, op. cit.. p. 252 Letter of Thomas Paschall, written from Pennsilvania the
last day of January, 1682/3
7 Ibid., p. 250.
57
The Swedes were multilingual, speaking English, Swedish,
Finnish, Dutch and Indian. Often they were called upon to be
translators for transactions with the Native Americans. Paschall
also tells us that they preferred rye bread to wheat, a taste he does
not understand.
The Swedes began planting "great quantities" of American
Indian corn to feed themselves, their cattle and their hogs,
according to Kalm. It made their hogs very fat, and gave their flesh
"an agreeable flavor, preferable to all other meat."
Skilled Woodsmen
Most early accounts stress the unusual competence of the
Swedes as woodsmen, and it is easy to see why sparsely populated
woodlands like those of the New Jersey rivers attracted them as the
price of lumber increased rapidly.
Examples includes Thomas Paschall's 1683 letter:
"The Swedes. . . will. . . hardly use any other toole but an ax;
they will cut down a tree, and cut him off when down, sooner
than two men can saw him, and rend him into planks or what
they please; only with the ax and wooden wedges, they use no
iron 8
and
". . .the Woods are full of Oakes, many very high and streight,
many of them about two foot through, and some bigger. ... A
Swead will fell twelve of the bigger in a day^
Peter Kalm described "New Swedish" sawmills. They were
unlike any built in the old country, constructed in the manner of
dykes -- built with ditches, drains and sluice gates in order to
reposition the creek to a favorable building site. They were built
with only one saw:
"It is customary here, when they erect sawmills. . . to direct
the water by a different course ... to a place suitable for
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid., p.253.
58
building. This was. . done. . . by ditches. The dam itself was
provided with sluice gates. 1°
Dvkes in Raccoon
Peter Kalm's journal entry on his trip to Raccoon Creek, N.J. in
1745 describes the extensiveness of dyking in the Swedish
community as well as the methods. He had taken the ferry across
from Pennsylvania to N.J., and was riding on a horse to Raccoon when
he made his observation. The words he used to describe the creek, a
kill, is a Dutch term.
"This day and the next we passed several kills or small
rivulets which flowed out of the country into the Delaware
with a gentle descent and rapidity. When the tide came up in
the Delaware, it also rose in some of these rivulets a good
way. Formerly they must have spread to a considerable
breadth by the flowing of the tide, but at present there were
meadows on the banks, formed by throwing up strong dykes as
close as possible to the water, to keep them from overflowing.
Such dikes were made along all rivers here to confine their
water, and therefore when the tide was highest, the water in
the river was much higher than the meadows. In the dykes
were gates through which the water could be drawn off or led
into the meadows. They were sometimes placed on the
outward side of the wall, in such a way that the water in the
meadows would force them open while the water would shut
them. "11
Kalm also establishes the extensive Swedish involvement in
dyking in his remarks about muskrats:
". . . [their] food is chiefly. . . mussels .... you see a number of
such shells near the entrance of their holes. . . ."
"They make their nests in the dikes that are erected along the
banks of rivers to keep the water from the adjoining medows;
but they often do a great deal of damage by spoiling the dikes
10 Kalm. op. cit.. p. 282.
11 Kalm, op. cit.. p. 175.
59
with digging and opening passages for the water to come into
the meadows . . . ."
" The Swedes asserted that they could never observe a
diminution in their number. ... As they damage their banks so
considerably, the people are endeavoring to destroy them when
they can find their nests. . . .
" At present, muskrat skins bring from sixpence to nine pence
in the market. . . . chiefly used by hatters. . . . The muskrats are
commonly caught in traps, with apples as bait. ..."
The Swedes were developing methods of their own for dike
maintenance. Kalm described a Swedish settler's approach to
muskrats in the dykes:
" A Swede . . . had freed his dam or piece of dike along the
river from them in the following manner: He sought and found
their holes, stopped them all up with earth, excepting one, on
that side from whence the wind came. He put a quantity of
sulfur into the open entrance, set fire to it, and then closed
the hole, leaving but a small one for the wind to pass through.
The smoke of the sulfur then entered their most remote nests
and stifled the animals. . . he found them lying dead in heaps. "^ 2
^2 Ibid., p. 239-40.
60
Chapter III. Section IV -- The move across the river to New Jersey
Before the turn of the nineteenth century, the majority of
Swedish settlers on the Delaware were living in New Jersey. This
migration across the river began in a small way under Governor
Printz, and accelerated after 1682, as development pressure
increased in the area. It was fueled by the Swedish colonists
distaste for governmental taxation and land grabbing. The earliest
of the settlers were convinced that they were entitled to Delaware
lands by virtue of having settled it and improved it. They were much
aggrieved by the legal maneuverings of the English.
The Beainninos of Unrest
The early Swedes had quarrels with their own government.
Governor Printz's ban on private trading with the Indians began the
troubles, as Swedish settlers chafed at the way the government
controlled profits even though they were in economic need. They
began traveling across the river to south Jersey in search of new
sources of food and trade at that time.' South Jersey represented
real opportunity for the colonists, as there was Indian trade there
for the taking.
In 1655, at the time of the Dutch conquest of New Sweden,
New Jersey may have begun to look still more attractive to the early
Swedish settlers. A number of Swedes refused to submit to Dutch
rule at that time -- 37 of them returned to Sweden, 19 signed oaths
of allegiance to the Dutch, and the rest refused. Those who refused
were given two years to change their minds or leave the colony.
According to Israel Acrelius, historian of New Sweden, the
Swedes were initially treated harshly by the Dutch invaders:
"The flower of the Swedish male population was sent to New
Amsterdam, taken by force and placed on shipboard. Swedish
property was carried off, their fields burned, their cattle
slaughtered, residents were forced to take oath of allegiance
^ Federal Writer's Project, op. cit.. p. 57.
61
to the Dutch ruler or given two years to dispose of their
holdings and leave^
But 1655 did not begin the migration to New Jersey, as Swedes
were living across the river before that time, according to Swedish
engineer Peter Lindstroem.^ Lindstroem wrote that the Swedes on
Burlington Island (NJ) in 1655, "had no trade or intercourse with
savages." It would have been unlikely that Swedes were living in
Burlington and not speaking to the Indians. Nonetheless, it is clear
that Swedes were in New Jersey before the Dutch takeover.
The Swedes on Burlington Island may have been joined by some
of the Finnish settlers who came on the last boat of the New Sweden
company in 1656 if N.J. historian William Nelson was correct that
the Mercurius stopped first at Burlington Island to unload goods.
The English period
In 1664, when English warships sailed into Manhattan and
annexed all the land between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers,
all deeds issued under Swedish or Dutch rule, as well as all previous
land grants and Indian purchases became subject to review. Charles
II began making irresponsible grants that overlapped one another and
completely ignored the rights of any people living on the land he was
giving away. Quakers began pouring Into the Philadelphia area, and
the cultural hegemony of the Swedish colony was broken.
It was still a law that seven years of living on and improving a
site should constitute clear title, and there was still plenty of
unoccupied land. Sensibly, the Swedes began more and more to cast
their lot with the woods.
The center of Swedish America had moved to the east side of
the Delaware by 1670, as the many small Swedish settlements along
the inland waterways of New Jersey began to take precedence.'*
2 Israel Acrellus, op. cit.. p. 79.
"^ The Lindstroem reference comes from his Geographica Americae, which was published in
1655.
^ Federal Writer's Project, op. cit.. p. 57.
62
Swedish congregations were established at Penn's Neck and
Raccoon's Creek (Swedesboro) by 1703. The Swedish churches at
Cohansey and Maurice river in were built in 1743 and 1748. As
churches surely followed settlers, the Swedish migration pattern
can be discerned -- a continued push toward the frontiers of New
Jerseys
in 1672, the Dutch briefly re-conquered the province,
throwing land ownership into confusion once again. In 1673, when
British control was reinstated, England once again issued a new set
of grants.
Penn's Campaign
William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania was in
control of several large tracts of land on the Delaware by 1683 --
not only Pennsylvania, but also parts of Delaware and New Jersey.
He began a campaign to try to get river lands that the Swedes had
settled, for his brethren.
First, Penn required that the Swedes return the certificates
given to them as permission to survey their lands along with any
deeds issued by the Duke of York, in order that they might be
replaced with new ones from Penn. Next he ordered that all old
deeds should be re-surveyed, as he knew that the early tracts were
larger than they should have been, as surveying techniques had been
much less precise at the time they were made. In this way,
thousands of acres were taken away from early colonists who had
settled the land. The properties were then sold to others, despite
the law that seven years of undisputed possession should give a
clear title.
According to Acrelius, those who had given in their
certificates and deeds never received then back, and were charged
three or four times as much rent for their lands when they re-
applied for deeds, but those who had not turned in their deeds were
left alone.
^ Wacker. op. cit.. p. 170.
63
The English were systematically re-surveying old deeds,
clipping corners off of surveys, and imposing rents where none had
existed before. e The Swedes were much disturbed by this. In 1715,
Swedish voters in Gloucester county turned out in record numbers to
oppose a man said to be seeking to dispossess the Swedes of their
lands.
Permits to the Swedes
Shortly after the English takeover (1668), the Swedes were
issued permits to purchase land from the Indians in Gloucester
County, New Jersey. The first of these permits was issued to Ole
Rasen,7 and 2 others. They sold the permit to Hans Hopman^ and two
others, who bought land from the Indians in 1676. By 1677, Hopman
and the other owners had begun to parcel out the land. The new
owners were listed in the 1677 taxables list for Gloucester County.
In 1680, the Swedes ownership of these lands was denied, then
reaffirmed by the local court as it found that the Swedish farmers
were entitled to their lands because they had been seated upon them
and improving them for seven years. Hopman and the other Swedes
in the lawsuit seem typical of the kind of settlement pattern often
attributed to Swedes in South Jersey: They had moved to Raccoon,
chosen a tract and begun improving it several years before they
obtained legal title. In this instance, they had been improving their
lands since 1673, four years before they bought them.
In 1684, the title to these same lands was disputed by the
English again and reaffirmed again, but this time for a different
reason. In this case, Hopman and the other eight Swedes
successfully defended their land claims by citing the original 1668
permit.
Swedish migration to the Salem and Raccoon Creek
communities of New Jersey was heaviest between 1670 and 1690.
An English map that was drawn in 1685, labeled a place on the river
^ Israel Acrelius, op. cit.. p. 125.
^ a.k.a. Olle Rawson, Olle Rose, Ocour Rosu, etc. Rosse was the man whose cabin was shown on
the 1714 Scott survey of Maurice River, (see survey)
^ Grandfather of the first owner of the Burcham farm.
64
north of Salem as Finn's Town. It is believed that there may have
been a Finnish settlement there as early as 1660.
The memories of Ake Helm, a seventy-year-old man who was
living in Raccoon Creek in 17459 are informative, as Helm
remembered a time when Raccoon Creek was a land of plenty. The
Swedes brought their horses, cows, oxen, sheep, hogs, geese and
ducks across the river with them, he said, and all of them multiplied
greatly. The hogs did particularly well. The horses and the pigs ran
wild in the woods in those days, along with the cattle. The cattle
became numerous and fat on the natural grasses. ^o
Settlement
New Jersey settlement was greatly confused by the history of
deed problems. The problems were enormous. Even the major
boundaries were in dispute, including the boundary between east and
west Jersey and the boundary between the royal colonies of New
York and New Jersey. As a result, all the lands near the frontiers
had their titles in question. Another part of the problem was the
Inaccuracy of surveying methods, which meant that many deeds
outlined incorrect amounts of land, as much as two times the
correct amount in some cases. Extralegal occupation, or squatting
was common in South Jersey. ^^
Charles Read, the speaker of New Jersey's eighteenth
provincial assembly, addressed the assembly in 1751 in regard to a
proposed tax bill. He suggested that property assessments be done by
judged value rather than by acreage because the assessors were
unable to judge the size of the tracts without re-surveying the land,
as "their are multitudes of Tracts in New Jersey that are Commonly
called one hundred acres, which do realy Contain three hundred Acres
and much more."^^
This confusion gave ample opportunity to woodcutters who did
not own land. They went to the Pineland region, and took it. In
9 Kalm, op. cit.. pi 81 Ake Helm, age 70 about 1745.
^0 Kalm. op. cit.. pp. 266, 179.
1 ^ Wacker, op. cit.. p. 221 .
^2 Wacker. QB^_£iL. p. 369.
65
1759, Charles Read, who was also the owner of several South
Jersey lumber tracts, addressed the legislature again, sponsoring a
bill to prevent "trespassers" from cutting timber,i3 and imposed a
fine of 20 shillings per tree on wood cutters who were caught
stealing timber.
According to Cultural georgapher Peter Wacker, squatting was
not only tolerated In South Jersey, but actually encouraged because
of the unsureness of ownership or bounds, or absentee ownership.
This led to an attitude of temporary occupation and quite different
land use and organization of landscape than if permanent occupation
based on permanent title had been available. A universal result was
the stealing of timber by squatters or nearby legal residentsi**
This pattern of temporary land use makes the dating of the early
Swedish community at Maurice River difficult. Nonetheless, it
explains why the first deeds to Swedes in Maurice River were dated
as late as 1720, even though settlers were in the region before that
time.
^^ C.R. Woodward, Ploughs and Politics. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, N.J.: 1942
p 139.
14 Wacker, op. cit.. p. 408.
66
67
The Burcham farm can be seen as a rare physical link to the
history of the eighteenth century extralegal Swedish community on
the Maurice, one that left few records, and has been largely
forgotten.
Hopman's land deed puts him in the area in 1737, but it seems
likely that he and his cousin Nicholas Hoffman followed the pattern
of their grandfather, Hans Hopman, in Raccoon Creek, moving to the
area before they purchased land, perhaps cutting timber to earn
money to buy the large tract. Nicholas Hoffman, in particular, seems
likely to have been in the Maurice River area before he bought land
there, as he was last listed in the church records of Raccoon Creek
seven years before he bought property in Maurice River. In addition,
his title to the Burcham/Gricco farmstead is questionable, and may
have been challenged in 1814.
Chapter III. Section V -- Inhabitants of Maurice River before 1720
It is often written that Swedes first settled in Maurice River
in 1720, because Andrew Errickson, Joseph Thompson and Joseph
Lord began renting lands from Thomas Byerly, an English proprietor,
in that year,i but there is ample evidence of settlers on the river
before that date.
The first record of settlers on the Maurice was made in 1684,
when the "Old road" was laid from Salem to Maurice River. 2 Ten
years later, a Englishman visiting Quaker friends in Salem, visited
the Maurice, describing it as an amazingly abundant place, a river
where Swedes killed geese "for their feathers only, leaving their
carcasses behind them." Other hard evidence for the earlier date of
settlement includes the fact that the old road from Salem to Maurice
River was re-built in 1705,^ and a constable was appointed for the
area in 1718.
^ Gushing and Sheppard, op. cit.. p. 51 4.
2 Gushing and Sheppard, op. cit.. pp. 515- 516.
^ Ibid., p. 516,518. It crossed the river at Greenwich.
68
Nineteenth-century historians, such as Elmer and Gushing and
Sheppard all agreed that the Swedes were the first settlers of
Maurice river. Elmer writes about the early community from
memories and interviews, and puts the first settlers there about
1655. Gushing and Sheppard rely on English deeds, however, and
therefore place the beginnings of the community about 1720.*
Cumberland county historian L.Q. Elmer described the early
settlement pattern of extralegal occupation:
" Quite a number of Swedes settled in the neighborhood of [the
Maurice River], and engaged in hunting and cutting lumber ,
without, however obtaining a title to the soil, until some of
them purchased it of the English." ^
". . . the Dutch and Swedes never took any steps to secure
permanent title to the land upon which they settled, and did
not even take deed from the Indians. Whatever title they may
have claimed as the first settlers and improvers was ignored
by the English, although there is reason to believe they were,
in many cases permitted to become purchasers at the usual
price for the unimproved land. ^
Elmer also speculates as to the source of some of the earliest
settlers, suggesting that some of the early Puritans from the 1641
Salem colony may have survived in the area. It is also known that
some of the settlers, like Caesar Hoskins, came up to the area from
Gape May. By 1700, a small number of lumberers and cattle owners
were living near Buckshutem Creek,'' and a Swedish log cabin that is
still standing (Geasar Hoskins') was built in Mauricetown about
1650.
The notes of Judce Joshua Brick
4 Ibid., p. 514.
^ Elmer, op. cit.. p. 2.
6 Ibid., p.8.
^ Buckshutem Creek joins the Maurice on its west side, at the same point that the Menantico
joins it on its east side.
69
Joshua Brick, in conversations recorded in the early twentieth
century, dated the beginning of the Swedish settlement about 1700,^
saying that "persons principally of Swedish origin came to Maurice
river about 1700," drawn by the "abundance of game and valuable
cedar close to navigation. They spent their time working the cedar
into shingles and rails and hunting."
Brick also said that the Swedes began to acquire title to their
lands in Maurice River about 1720 (this is borne out by the deeds)
and that the largest immigration from the Swedish settlements up
the Delaware began in 1720, and lasted until 1740.
One large tract that was acquired from the New Jersey
Proprietors in 1723, was Andrew Erickson's 1155 acres on the east
side of the Maurice river adjoining the mouth. He bought the lands
from Thomas Byerly, after leasing them for several years. Erickson
was a mariner, and was doubtless shipping timber. Erickson deeded
the property to his son Andrew in 1742.^ This was the only sale out
of the Byerly Survey until 1804 when William Griffith purchased it.
Brick corroborates the opinion of Wacker, as he said that the
lands in the Byerly survey had been early settled, despite the
absence of deeds, and that William Griffith had a great deal of
trouble with the early settlers, and finally had to sell them their
lands at a low price.
Other records of the settlement include a list of sixty
parishioners of the original Swedish Lutheran church in 1743
(Illustration p. 85.) and the first tax assessment of New Jersey
which was taken in 1751. In "Prince Maurice's prescinct," the
Cumberland County Ratables List included 51 married men and 12
single men. Four sawmills were also listed -- Aaron Leaming's,
Frederick Hoffman's, Isaac Sharp's and Gabriel Vanemon's. The
Erixons, the Hofmans, the Peterson, Isard, Jones and Vanamon
families were among the landowners listed.
8 Judge Daniel Harris' notes of conversations he had with Judge Joshua Brick. Harris was
born in 1814 in Port Elizabeth, N.J.
Judge Joshua Brick, born 1779, died 1860.
^ His son sold it to Jeremiah Learning of Cape May (Liber 18, p 40)
70
These tax and church records are late though, for the purposes
of discussing the early community. The best evidence for the early
community comes from the following list of residents known to be
in the area by 1720.
Some of the Early residents of Maurice River:
Joseph Lord ^o
by 1720 when he began leasing land from Thomas Byerly
Joseph Thompson ^^
By 1720, when he began leasing a large tract of land Thomas Byerly.
Daniel Encland^^
His sawmill was operating on Buckshutem Creek before 1705.
Swedish builder and first owner of Caesar Hoskins cabin c. 1650^3
Caesar Hoskins who bought 150 acres in Cape May (later
Mauricetown) in 1691,1^ recorded his cattle earmark in 1694,15 and
served as the Sheriff of Cape May County from 1701-1704. His cabin
appears on the 1714 Scott survey. 16
Michael Issard. Jr. I''
moved to the west side of the Maurice in 1704, selling his lands in
Greenwich. (Salem County).
^0 Gushing and Sheppard. op. cit.. p. 514.
11 Ibid.
12 Gushing and Sheppard. op. cit.. p. 516.
1"^ Caesar Hoskins, whose cabin appears on the 1714 Scott survey, see illustration in this
paper, was an Englishman, and did not build the cabin. Gunnar Zitterquist, consultant for the
Swedish famistead project, believed the Hoskins cabin, which still stands in Mauricetown,
could have been built as early as 1650.
^^ John and Diane Smith, A History of Mauricetown. p. 14. They cite Calendar of New Jersey
Records, 1664-1703, p. 458.
15 Book of Deeds, Liber A, p. 8, Cape May County Clerk's Office in the town of Cape May Court
House, N.J.
1^ Ibid, p. 14. They quote Maurice Beesley, Early History of Cape May Countv. 1857.
1 ^ He was the son of Michael Issard who moved from Chester County, PA to Greenwich, NJ
before 1688. Margaret Inwin McVickar, "Izard Family", The Cape May County Magazine of
History and Genealogy. Volume III, Number 8, June 1954.
71
died in 1722 at his home on the west side of the river near
Buckshutem. An inventory taken by William Rawson and Caesar
Hoskins listed his possessions, those of a livestock farmer and
woodcutter, including 11 cows, 6 calves, 2 oxen, 1 steer, 14 yearling
heifers, 16 sheep, 1 mare, 14 hogs, assorted farm implements and
tools for woodcrafti8. Michael Izard, Sr., moved to Greenwich from
Chester county, PA.
--his wife Martha Izard
children
Michael Izard, 3rd
John Izard
James Izard
Gabriel Izard
Pile Rosse
a.k.a. Ocour Rusu, Ole Rose, Wooley Rawson 1 9 by 1714 when his cabin
appears on the Scott survey.
William Rawson (by 1718, when he buys a sawmiiRO) He was
probably the son or grandson of Olle who was listed as Ocour Rusu on
the 1714 Scott surveys 1
Peter Erickson^^
was living on the Cohansey by 1687, may have been living on the
Maurice by 1694, definitely by 1702. He was the brother of
Swedish-born Olle Derickson of Repaupo Creek, and one of the
original patentees of Carkoens Hook in Kingsessing in 1675. He was
living in Repaupo creek by 26 March 1684, when he bought 100 acres
near Israel Helm. By 1687, he seems to have moved on, as Wooley
Derickson claimed to be a co-owner in a Newcastle County survey
that year and had been paying the taxes on that property.
^^ Estate was valued at 74 pounds, 18 shillings, 3 pence.
^9 Letter fromPeter Craig to Patricia Bovers, July 12, 1995 provides variant names.
20 Gushing and Sheppard, op. cit.. p 514 and other sources.
21 Letter from Peter Craig to Patricia Bovers, August 1995
22 Peter Craig, op. cit.. p. 72.
72
By 1688, Peter Erickson was the owner of 20 acres on the
Cohansey. In 1694, he was given land on the Maurice by the Indians in
return for his services as an interpreter.23 in 1702, a Gloucester
county lawsuit referred to him as Peter Erickson of Maurice River.
His offspring remained in Maurice River for many years.
Andrew Erickson^'*
probably the son of Peter Erickson. He bought 1155 acres beginning
at the mouth of Maurice River in 1723/4. He had been leasing the
property for 7 years before that.
his wife, Magdalena Peterson Erickson, daughter of Peter Peterson
children -- Andrew Peterson
-- Samuel Peterson
-- Christina Peterson
-- Sarah Peterson
-- Rebecca Peterson
Peter Peterson^s
Born Peter Peterson Stake, Peterson changed his name and moved to
Maurice river in 1711 from Calcon Hook, PA. ,26 acquiring 920 acres
and a sawmill at that time Peter was the son of Finnish-born Mans
Petersson Stake, who came to the Delaware with Governor Rising in
1654. Mans moved to New Amsterdam after the Dutch victory, and
married in Brooklyn in 1663, becoming one of the first settlers in
Harlem.
By 1666, Mans Stake was back, having been involved in a series
of drunken misdemeanors in New Amsterdam. He lived in Calcon
Hook, PA, for many years and was the object of many lawsuits
brought against him by his neighbors.
In 1695, Mans gave his plantation to his son, Peter, age 20. He was
still living on his sons' property 2 years later.
23 Ibid., p. 72, and Salem Deeds Liber 6, p 194.
24 Letter from Peter Craig to Dan Erickson, August 29, 1989.
25 Peter Craig, op. cit. p. 40.
26 Calcon Hook was a part of Chester Co., PA at tfiat time. Later it became Delaware Co., PA
73
Hendrick Tussev Jr.^^
Pile Tussev,
sons of Hendrick Tussey, (a.k.a. Hendrick Toulson and Henry Toarson)
they were "living in Maurice River" in 1703, at the time of their
father's death.
27 Peter Craig, op. cit.. p. 119.
74
Chapter III. Section VI -- Why John Hopman moved to Maurice River
John Hopnnan, first owner of the Burcham farm, was an old-
style Swede, a man who was motivated by the cultural patterns we
have been discussing. As a third generation Swedish immigrant, he
was also well-acquainted with the culture and the politics of New
Sweden. His decisions about where to live and what to do with his
land reflected the Swedish-American experience directly - not
only his own, but also that of his father and grandfather. The
history of the Hopman family on the Delaware begins with John's
grandfather, Hans, who first rejected assimilation into the English
culture 1673. The history of the lives of Hans and his son
Frederick's helps to explain John Hopman's decision to move his
family to Maurice River.
Hans Hopman. earlv Delaware settler^
Sergeant Hans Hopman came to the Delaware region sometime
before 1655, when he first appeared in the records of the Dutch
court at Newcastle. He spent most of the following year in jail at
Fort Casimir, awaiting trial for selling a gun to an Indian. In
September of 1856, he was sent to trial in Manhattan.
It is not known how Hans came to be on the Delaware in 1655,
or why he was selling a gun to an Indian. Hans may have been a Dutch
soldier who moved to the region from New Amsterdam, or he may
have been a Swede who was pressed into military service at the
time of the Dutch takeover. Whatever his national origin, however,
his life was closely involved with the early Swedish community on
the Delaware.
South River records (Delaware) in 1671, show him living
among the Swedes at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. He had apparently
married a Swedish woman. 2 Hans and his family lived on a part of a
thousand-acre tract that he and four other Swedes had been granted
under Dutch rule.^ After the British takeover, these families had to
^ Peter Craig, op. cit.. p. 77 and letters to P. Bovers.
2 Ibid.
Peter Craig, letter and John Watson, Annals of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, E.S. Stuart, 1905
74
re-apply for deeds to their properties, finally receiving new patents
from the English in 1671. The English deed for his property was not
enough to keep Hopman on the West bank of the Delaware, however.
He may even have moved across to New Jersey before the deed was
issued. Hans and his family joined other Swedes -- Jons Gustafsson
and Peter Jonsson -- in their move to Raccoon Creek in 1673,
purchasing land there in 1676. (Raccoon Creek was later known as
Swedesboro, New Jersey).
Hans' name appears next in English records in 1699, when he
was a part of the Swedish/Finnish rebellion plot against the English,
fined as a follower of Marcus Jacobsen, the Long Finn.'*
In New Jersey, Hans and three of his sons raised cattle and
were probably also cutting wood. Their cattle roamed free on the
common marsh, and their herds were identified by three distinct ear
brands recorded in the original tax lists of Gloucester County.^
Hans died in Raccoon Creek shortly after 1690, and was
survived by six sons. One of them was Frederick #1 of Raccoon
creek. Another was John #1 of Pilesgrove, Salem County.
Hans' son Frederick. (#2)
Frederick Hopman. who was probably Hans' eldest son,
prospered in New Jersey, owning 100 acres in Raccoon Creek by
1683. He was committed to preserving the Swedish language and
religion in the new world, and was one of the sponsors of the
Swedish Lutheran church in Raccoon Creek in 1673. He donated the
land on which the church was built, and served as a church warden
for many years. Dying after 1728, he left no will. Baptismal
records exist for four sons and five daughters, one of whom was
John #2, that is, Johannes Frederickson Hopman of Maurice River.
Hans son John(#3)
Less is known about another of Hans Hopman's sons, who was
also called John, because he moved to remote Salem County at a
^ See Chapter 3, section one, p. on the Long Finn rebellion.
Frank Stewart, former president of GCHS recorded the earmarks in a society publication,
having found them on original tax lists of the county.
75
young age, where there was no church or church recorder. John #3
was at least 21 years old in 1686 when he served as a juror in
Gloucester County court, and had moved to Pilesgrove, Salem County
by 1696, when he acquired 38 acres from William Hall.^ He died in
Salem County in 1714/5, leaving a will that named four sons, one of
whom was Nicholas Hoffman of Maurice River. He had at least two
daughters as well. His brother Frederick #1 was an executor of the
will.
John Hopman #2. Johannes Frederickson Hopman of Maurice River
John #2, the son of Frederick Hopman #1, was born in Raccoon
Creek about 1684, and married to Cathren #1 by 1711. He bought a
large corner of the Scott tract, ^ on the east side of Maurice River in
1737, and began the process of dividing the tract into farms for his
family.
Within the year, he had sold the northwest corner of the tract
-- a 200 acre triangle that would later become the Burcham-Gricco
tract -- to his first cousin Nicholas. Other sections of the tract
were divided between his sons.
John doubtless believed he owned the Burcham-Gricco tract,
which was logical, as the 1714 survey of the Scott tract (see
illustration, p. 83 ) includes it, showing Scott's line crossing the
Menantico and extending down to the Maurice. ^ But at some point in
^ Archives of the State of New Jersey. Vol. 21, p. 616
^ 800 acres from Edward Lummis - deed at N/loravian Archives in Bethlehem, PA.
^ The triangular tract does not appear on the NJ Proprietors 1691 survey to Bartlett,
however, (see illustration p. 84), and it was not mentioned in Scott's deed to Lummis. It seems
likely that the Burcham tract was one of the corners clipped off of the Scott survey by later
surveyors, as LQ Elmer wrote that the Scott tract, as originally surveyed contained twice as
many acres as it was said to contain, that is, 20 thousand acres were surveyed as ten.
The problems can be traced back to John's sale of the 200 acre triangular tract to his
cousin Nicholas in 1738. The only known record of this transaction is in Nicholas Hoffman's
1748 deed to his son in law Gabriel izard, and does not include a deed recital, saying only that
John Hopman acquired it by divers means. It seems likely that the Burcham farm was one of
the properties that Brick refers to when he discusses the problems Griffith encountered after
1804, when he purchased land out of the Byerly survey, and found that he had to contend with
many early settlers and improvers on his tract, eventually having to sell them the lands at a
low price. Suggestively, there is a snag in the chain of title of the Burcham deeds in 1814
when Nicholas Izard, grandson of Nicholas Hoffman, and a resident of Fayette, Kentucky, sells
the family property to Charles Ewing the prominent lawyer for $1. A year later, Daniel Elmer,
76
the English re-surveying process, the Burcham-Gricco farm was
clipped off. This discrepancy would not be unraveled for many years,
however.
In Maurice River, John Hopman(#2) and his sons settled down
to cutting lumber. By 1750, two of his sons were sawmill owners
-- Frederick (#2 )'s sawmill was listed on the 1751 ratables list,
and Jonas' sawmill on West creek was operating before 1750.9
Hopman was also raising livestock, keeping bees and farming.
His inventory lists a stack of corn, swine and cattle, tools,
ploughshares, mill stones and other goods. io His will also describes
his dyked meadow, which was built before 1746.^1 Hopman, (John
#2) was dyking the Manumuskin informally-- with his sons, in the
Dutch tradition - long before any legislation was passed. ^2 Hopman
became one of the founders of The Maurice River Swedish Lutheran
church, a church that was built on his property about 1743. The
church was built at the edge of the river to make it easily
accessible, as most of the congregation arrived by water.
who was also a prominent lawyer sells It to John Lanning, Jr. There is no record of a deed
from Ewing to Elmer however.
It Is interesting that the confusion about the Scott tract still exists today, as many
surveyors in 1995, still survey properties based on the "Scott line" as it is shown in the 1714
survey -- running across the Burcham property. The Scott tract, still today is considered to
have included the Burcham farm, by crossing the Menantico, not simply running along the
Menantico to the Maurice.
9 Roy Hand, "The (y/lills of east and West Greek", Cape May County Magazine. June 1961 p.
273.
^^ An inventory of John Hopman's estate that was done by his fellow parishioners William
Cobb and Abraham Jones was appraised at 90 pounds 3 and 10 and included:
his weahng cloth and aparel, a pair of oxen, 7 cows, 3 young calte, 4 other catle, a field of
corn, a cart and sled, a yoke and iron, a pair of hand mill stones and grind stone, 2 bee hives, a
plow shear and colter, a parcel of tools, a canon, colers and harnas, sadle and old iron, loom
and backing, coverlid and blanketing, old lumber, 2 spinning wheels, a bell, 3 beds and
furniture, a piece of a nett. 3 chairs and 2 tables, warming pan and smoothing iron. 3 iron
potts, books, earthen wear and bottles, pewter dining plates and spoons and tramkers, gun
powder and backling, a chear and benchis, corn, an old hors and chees press, swine and a
mufmin hide, womans or woven cloaths. a stack of corn, book debts, forgotten goods
^^ See 1746 will survey, illustration p. 82.
^2 Hopman is cited in local histories, such as F.W. Bowen's as the first in the area to dike the
marshland. But Bowen assumed that the diking began after 1780, when the state of NJ
authorized the diking of the Manumuskin. (Trenton Index of Laws, Acts of the 6th general
assembly of the state of NJpp. 721-23.) Hoffman's 1746 will establishes the diking much
earlier.
77
John's main collaborator on the Swedish Church was his first
cousin and neighbor, Nicholas Hoffman, the man to whom John had
sold the northwest corner of his tract -- the Burcham-Gricco
farmJ3 john Hopman donated the land on which the church and
graveyard were built, a section of his tract that his son Jonas would
later inherit. i^ Lucas Peterson and Nicholas Hoffman paid the
expenses for the building. is (See illustrations p. 82, 85.)
The Maurice River Church
At the beginning, sermons at the Maurice River Lutheran church
were given in Swedish. With time, however, sermons began to be
delivered in English, and the Swedish-Lutheranness of the church
declined. The church was dependent on visiting preachers, as it had
no permanent clergyman of its own, and German Moravian
missionaries were the only preachers willing to make the arduous
journey to Maurice River. The missionaries traveled down to the
church after preaching at the Swedish church at Raccoon Creek. By
1746, they had succeeded in converting the congregation to the
Moravian faith, and Nicholas Hoffman and Lucas Peterson assigned
the deed for the church to two Moravian ministers that year.
Records of Moravian Missionaries
In 1745, Abraham Reincke, i
from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, noted in his travel journal that he
In 1745, Abraham Reincke, a German Moravian ^^ missionary
13 Nicholas lived on the Maunce on the farm just north of John, directly across Menantico
Creek.
1** The church and graveyard site no longer exists, as most of the land on which it was built
has fallen into the river. The cornerstone of the graveyard can be found on what is today Rudy
Strauss' property.
1 ^ In a 1 746 deed to Abraham Jones and 3 Moravian missionaries, Nicholas Hoffman and Lucas
Peterson were described as "those who had caused the church "house or building" to be
constructed "at their own proper costs and charges" on a fast landing on John Hopman's land.
This deed for the church house is at t\1oravian Archives in Bethlehem, PA.
16
The Moravians had their beginnings in the Protestant Reformation in Germany . They were
sometimes known as United Brethren, Bohemians, or Hernhutters. Their doctine was partly
Calvinistic, partly Lutheran, and rejected war. They suffered great persecution in Europe, and
established themselves in Bethlehem. Pennsylvania in 1741. Crusading missionaries, they
converted a large community of native Americans in Gnadenhutten, a settlement in
Tuscarawarus County, Ohio. The site is famous today because the peace-loving Indians there
78
visited Nicholas Hoffman and his wife Catherine at Morris's river
(Burcham/Gricco property), then crossed the creek (the Menantico at
Rawson's mill) on his way to John Hopman's. Reincke described "old
John Hopman of Maurice River" as looking "like an Indian," because
Hopman dressed in the style of the of the early Swedish pioneers --
wearing home-made clothes of animal skins.
Another traveling minister. Earnest Gambold, also stayed the
night at Nicholas Hopman's.
John Hopman's 1746 Will
John Hopman (#2) died at Maurice River. His will (1746) named
five sons -- John #4, b 1712, Frederick #2, b. 1715, Peter, b. 1722,
Jonas b. 1727 and Gabriel, b. 1731, all of Maurice River. John and his
wife, Catherine, were buried in the graveyard at the Maurice River
Church. His will mentions the divisions of property that he had
already made between his sons and splits his "banked meadow
adjoining "Manumuskee" creek in equal fifths between his sons. (See
survey, illustration p. 82.) By leaving it equally to all five sons, he
was illustrating the value of the small tract of banked meadow, and
also insuring the cooperation of all five brothers in the maintenance
of the dykes.
Hopman's decision to move to Maurice River
By the beginning of the eighteenth century, Maurice River had
become the answer for many Swedes. The largest numbers of
immigrants arriving between 1720 and 1740. John Hopman was one
of these immigrants, an old-style Swede who dressed in the manner
of the early pioneers, and enjoyed life on the river. Like them,
Hopman was a woodsman and cattle owner, a man who prized the
marshland, and knew how to make good use of it -- dyking, cutting
timber and letting his cattle roam the marshes.
Hopman's dyking was a family affair, work he shared with hi
sons. The dykes were for their mutual benefit. This was congenial,
community or family diking, in the style of the Dutch.
were mercilessly executed there by a white posse who somehow mistook them for a murderous
band.
79
Clearly, Hopman was drawn to the frontier because he wanted
to live among the Swedes. At Maurice River, he followed his father
Frederick #2's example, working to preserve Swedish culture and
religion by donating land to build a Swedish church, or center for the
community, where the Swedish language would be spoken. He
continued to dress in the style of the early pioneers, though the
other Europeans caled him an Indian.
In John's Hopman's memory banks, doubtless, was the history
of his own family's trouble with the English -- beginning with
grandfather Hans' deed troubles at Marcus Hook in 1691, and
continuing with family's troubles with the permits they were issued
in Raccoon Creek. The constantly shifting deed situation would have
been known to him through direct knowledge and experience.
Therefore, It seems highly possible that he, like many of his
fellow Swedes, was cutting timber or settling lands in Maurice
River long before his official 1738 purchase, and equally likely, if he
knew that the land he sold to Nicholas Hoffman did not belong to him
because it had been re-surveyed, and excluded from the Scott tract,
not to have considered the new survey valid.
Nicholas Hoffman
Nicholas Hoffman was born by 1695, and lived the first half of
his life at Pilesgrove, Salem County, in an isolated Swedish
settlement that was far from the church at Raccoon Creek, and
therefore without much recorded history. He and his family do
appear in the records of the church at Raccoon Creek until 1716,
however. ^^ After that time, he may have moved from Pilesgrove, as
he and his brother John #3 ^^ were leasing the property they
inherited from their father to Peter Steelman by June of 1718.^^
Nicholas' name continued to be associated with the church at
Raccoon Creek until about 1731,^° after which time he may have
Amandus Johnson. Records of Swedish Lutheran Churches at Raccoon and Penn's Neck, p.
236.
^8 They were two sons of John #3.
^^ West Jersey deeds A-B. pp. GO, 62.
20
Amandus Johnson, op. cit.. pp. 35. 252-253.
80
moved to Maurice River. If so, he would have been in Maurice River
for seven years before he bought the triangular tract from his cousin
John.
Nicholas and his wife Catherine #2 lived in Maurice, raising
cattle and sheep until about 1748, when they assigned their Maurice
River property to their daughter Martha and her husband Gabriel
Izard. 21 They returned to Pilesgrove, Salem County in the last years
of their lives. Catherine #2 died there in 1758, Nicholas in 1767.
They had two daughters -- Mary and Martha. Martha Hoffman
married Gabriel Izard and lived on her father's farm in Maurice River.
The Burcham-Gricco property remained in the Izard family for
more than 70 years until Nicholas Izard, Nicholas Hoffman's
grandson sold it in 1814. By 1815, the Gricco part of the farm had
been re sold to John Lanning, Jr. His wife's maiden name was Rhoda
Izard.
21 Nicholas Hoffman was nonetheless taxed for his 180 acre farm on the Maurice river in
1751, along with 16 cattle and 8 sheep. Gabriel Isard was taxed only for 140 acres and 10
cattle.
81
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Chapter IV. Section I --The Burcham Period
The brickmaking period of the Burcham farm, from 1865 to
1942, is the focus of the last chapter of this thesis. This industrial
period is a significant part of the history of this farm, a period that
extended the life of the dyked farm beyond that of other farms in the
area. During this period, a traditional farming technology - dyking-
- was used to support another industry.
Chapter Four begins with the precise mechanics of the
technology that preserved the farm. First it details the history and
technology of the brick industry, then moves on to the history of
Mlllville brickyards in general and Amaziah Burcham's in particular.
The second section of the chapter discusses the history of the
farmhouse, which is also a historical artifact, the history of the
family, and the use of the farm today. This chapter concludes the
discussion of the many ways that this Delaware valley marshland
has been used through time, a product of the many cultures that
developed and maintained it.
Sharp's -- The First Brickyard in Miilville
The first commercial brick maker listed in Miilville was John
L. Sharp, whose factory was established in 1848, just as Miilville
industry began to take off.
Sharp was the son of Anthony Sharp, a 66 year-old
"gentleman," who owned $15,000 of real estate and ran a small
sand-washing business in 1860.1
The Sharps were Quakers who had moved down to Buckshutem
Creek from Mount Holly, N.J. in 1838. John L. Sharp was born in
1824, and established a brick factory at Buckshutem when he was 23
years old. 2
1 (At that time, sand was washed and sold to glass manufacturers)
2 This advertisement in the 1882 Bridgeton section of Cumberland County directory at
Miilville says
Sharps, established 1848.
manufacturers of pressed, paving, stretchers, arch and salmon bricks,
in miilville on Middle Ave. west of bridge
86
Before 1860, Sharp built kilns in downtown Millville,^ on the
river at Middle Avenue. He brought clay fronn his Buckshutem pits
into town, probably by water.
in 1860, Sharp was the only brick maker listed in the Mlllville
census. 4 He held $2,000 of real estate, and $4,000 of personal
assets.
Sharp operated the brickyard six months a year, using 1200
tons of clay (worth $250) and 150 cords of wood (worth $450), and
employing 11 workers (who were paid $286), to produce 500,000
bricks. The bricks were sold for $3,000. Sharp's Brickyard was
worth $5,000.
Sharp lived most of his adult life in downtown Millville, and
was a member of the City Council there for 9 years. He was elected
to the state senate in 1856 as a Democrat. He died in Millville on
August 6, 1880.5
Subsequent Owners
Sharp's brick factory was owned by Samuel Hilliard by 1867.6
David Fithian of Millville worked as a brick maker at Hilliard's
brickyard, about that time.''
By 1882, Sharp's brickyard was owned by George Harrison,
though it was still listed as Sharp's Brickyard in the city
directories. Harrison advertised many types of brick for sale,
including pressed bricks, paving bricks, stretchers, arch and salmon
bricks, (see advertisement, p. )
In 1886, Harrison's brickyard appeared on the new Millville
City Map, though the artist's drawing is of the factory complex is
inaccurate. (See 1880 map and the 1904 photograph of the site). The
brickyard was built on the Maurice River, at Middle Avenue, near the
oyster and fish markets, where it was ideally located for shipping
^The date the kilns were built might be inferred from a deed search for the property.
^ He was the only brick maker listed in the 1860 manufacturing census.
^ Gushing and Sheppard, p. 644.
6 See 1867 map.
^ Fola Bevan of l\/lillviile HIstohcal Society came across references to Hilliard's brickyard in
her research into the Fithian family. Her article was published in vineland Historical Magazine,
vol. 61. #1, 1985.
87
bricks. In 1904, it was known as Hess and Golder's. It was no longer
operating by 1930. At that time, the property was owned by Ben
Dilks' dad, who occasionally provided clay for the Burcham
brickyard, where the clay was beginning to run short.
NJ State Geologist's Report of 1904
In 1904, the state geologist's report on Brick making was
published. It reported that there were 6 brick factories in
Cumberland County that year, but only two of them had the latest
brick making machinery -- the stiff mud process machinery. The
two modern brick makers were A.E. Burcham, who was listed at
Buckshutem and Kilborn and Gibson in Rosenhayn. Four other
manufacturers made bricks by the soft mud brick method, including
Hess and Golder at Millville (formerly Sharp's), J. A. Hobart at
Vineland, B. Erickson at Bridgeton, and Robert Greenlee at Belleplain.
Brick making, the traditional and the stiff-mud process
The soft mud process was the first one developed, and it was a
less costly, but more labor intensive process. In 1904, this process
was used at Hess and Golder's brick factory across the river. At the
beginning of the Burcham brickyard, it was doubtless also the
method used. By 1904, however, Burcham had invested in new
technology, which is described below. First, though, the traditional
method:
The Soft Mud Process
In the Soft-Mud Process, bricks are made in much the same
way as bread. First, the clay is mixed with water and sand until it
becomes soft. Next, it was placed in wooden molds that resemble a
bread loaf pan, with five smooth surfaces. The sixth surface is
formed by scraping the clay off the top of the mold.
As the bricks are removed from the mold and transferred to
the drying floor, they bend slightly, becoming concave on one side
and convex on the other. To produce brick with smooth faces and
sharp edges, this type of brick must be re-pressed.
88
Stiff-Mud Machines
The Stiff-mud Process, which was used at the Burcham
brickyard, produced bricks that required less care in tempering,
molding or re-pressing, and still had crushing strength equal to
those of other common bricks. In the stiff mud process, less water
is mixed into the clay, creating a stiff mud which is then forced
through a rectangular die.
As the bar of clay issues from the machine, it is received on
the cutting table, where it is cut up into bricks by means of parallel
steel wires or by revolving transverse wires or a wheel of wires.
This process was created mainly for clays of moderate
plasticity like the Cape May Age Clays found on the farm. It does not
work well with stony clays.
Stiff-mud bricks can also be re-pressed, but they do not have
to be. With either type of brick, the green bricks (those that have
been dried but not fired) are put into a steel mold and pressure is
applied to straighten and sharpen the edges. This was done with
both hand power and steam power machines. Soft mud bricks need to
dry for a few hours before re-pressing, but stiff-mud brick can be
re-pressed as soon as they are molded.
Clay
The main component of bricks is clay, which is, in its pure
state, consists largely of the mineral kaolinite, a hydrous aluminum
silicate created by the decomposition of granite or other feldspathic
rocks. Most clays also contain other hydrous aluminous minerals as
well, such as finely powdered quartz, feldspar and mica.
The best brick clays contain three-fifths silica, one-fifth
alumina, and one-fifth iron, lime, magnesia, soda, potash and water.
Gape Mav Aae clavs
Described as gritty, loamy, sandy clay. Cape May age clays
slake (heat and crumble by addition with water) slowly because the
89
clay particles in them are evenly distributed. ^ This clay produces
red bricks naturally, without any additional color added.
Burning
Burning brick drives the last traces of moisture, carbon
dioxide and sulfur tri- oxide from the clay, causing the mass to
shrink as the clay fuses and hardens, then vitrifies, becoming dense,
hard, permanent brick.
^Ries and Hummel, op. cit.. p. 346
90
^-J-
^1
Chapter IV. Section II -- Burcham's New Jersey Drain and Tile Works
As the industrial town of Millville grew, the brick industry
also grew, and the clay pits on the Burcham farm became very
valuable, as they were one of the only two sources of Cape May Age
clay in Millville. (The other was Sharp's.) By 1865, there was a
commercial brickyard established on the site. The factory was built
by John McClure, who purchased the property in 1865, and
established a brick factory on the site soon afterward. ^
John McClure was the son of David McClure, owner of the large
dyked farm^ just upriver from the Burcham property, and was living
on his father's farm in 1860. He was 26 years old. John McClure was
also the nephew of John McConaghy, another owner of adjacent
marshland. The McConaghy-McClure family owned the property
bordering the Clunn's for at least 70 years. 3
It Is not known when bricks were first made on the Burcham
property. It is likely, however, that they were made at an earlier
day. Possibly, they were made for use in the foundation of the
earliest identified structure on the property. The house was on the
site at the time Amaziah Burcham bought the property in 1867.
1870 Census
By the time of the 1870 census, Amaziah Burcham owned the
Menantico brickyard, which he called the New Jersey Drain and Tile
Works. His brother Joseph Burcham, and two other brick makers
were listed as living on the farm and working in the brick factory.
^ Hudson, Mary, History of Millville. Millville Historical Society, 1950.
2 The 1860 census lists David McClure as ttie owner of $4000 of real estate.
3 1834 Sheriff's sale to David McClure, 1838 to John McConaghy for $1k, 1854 back to David
McClure in John Mc Conaghy's will, Mc Clure is left the farm where he and Mary ann Mc Clure
now live in Millville for his lifetime, then after his death, it will go to John mcclure, son of
David's son. John McClure is described as Mc Conaghy's nephew, so Mary Ann must have been
Mc Conaghy's sister.
John Mcclure inherits the property after the death of his father. In 1872, he mortgages
40 sqauare perches of the property to his neighbor, Edward Hampton for $300. The
transaction probably has something to do with the meadow company appraisals. In 1909, after
the death of his wife, he sells the property to Wm and Charles Ore. referring to the property as
the "Kates farm," probably because the Kates were leasing the farm.
92
Four of the 1 1 brickworkers in Millville that year worked at
Burcham's. Some of the others were working at Nathaniel Reeves'
brickyard.
Amaziah had $1800 of capital invested in the business, owned
two brick press machines, employed 4 males over 16, paid $1,100 of
wages, and ran the business for only 6 months of the year.
He used $225 of clay, $90 of wood, and $480 of sand to produce
350,000 bricks that he sold for $3,500. He used the power of one
horse in the process.
Nathaniel Reeves, the other brick maker listed, was also in
business for only 6 months of the year, paid $1,000 in wages to 3
male workers. He had $600 of capital invested, owned only one brick
making machine, but it was not the "pressed" kind. He also used one
horse in the process.
Reeves used $100 of clay and 70 cords of wood worth $280, (no
sand listed) to produce 200,000 bricks worth $2,000.
By 1880, Reeves was no longer in the brick making business.
He had become a glass cutter and had $4500 of real estate.
1880 Census
In 1880, Amaziah Burcham was the only brick maker listed in
the manufacturing census, though he was not the only brick maker at
the time. Twenty four men were listed as brick workers in the
Millville population census in 1880, and Amaziah employed half of
them -- 12 men who he paid $2,000 in wages.
The other brick makers may have worked in the
Buckshutem/Millville brickyard, which may not have been counted in
the Millville Manufacturing census tally. It may have been counted in
a different township or county.
Burcham used wood and other materials worth $475 to produce
600,000 common bricks worth $3,600 and $200 of tiles.
By 1880, he had installed steam power -- one boiler and one
engine. He had also begun to advertise. In the Greenwich directory
that year, he advertised hard, paving and pressed bricks, tile and
drain pipe for sale. He had also installed some high tech equipment,
including a grinder and a brick press.
93
1904 Report of the State Geologist
In 1904, the New Jersey state geologist wrote that the best
Cape May clay in Cumberland county was found on either side of the
Maurice river at Buckshutem -- at A. E. Burcham's brickyard on the
east side of the river, and at Hess and Golder's yard on the west.
They were the only two brick makers listed in Millville.
At Burcham's. sandy clay was found under 15 inches of sand for
at least 9 feet in depth, but only the upper 6 feet were dug. The
bottom layers were left to prevent the water of the creek from
entering the pit.
Burcham clay was a green brick mixture that requires 27 %
water for tempering and becomes steel hard at cone 3. He was
producing three thousand red-burning bricks a day by the stiff mud
process.
Brickyard workers were seasonal employees, hired from
Philadelphia employment agencies, who were offered
accommodations from March to November. They lived in tenant
houses on the property --two of which were behind the wagon shed,
and three more that were by the bend in the road.^ Maud Jones
Burcham, Janice and Jeannette's mother baked 14 loaves of bread a
day to fed the work force.
The 20th century
Frank Burcham, Amaziah's son took over the brickyard in 1913,
as Amaziah was incapacitated. He had been gradually taking on more
responsibility before that time. He had married in 1907, and his
wife Maud, had joined the brick making business at that time.
Mary Samano Wheaton, remembers that her father, John
Samano, Sr., worked at the Burcham brickyard. Samano was a recent
Russian immigrant and a highly skilled mason, but did not speak
English well enough to find masonry work when he first arrived. He
and his wife and the first few of their seven children lived in one of
^ The tenant houses were wood frame, 2 storey houses. Single men lived inside the family
house in rooms that were in the second floor of the oldest section of the house.
94
the tenant houses on the Burcham property about 1920. Later
Samano and his sons started a masonry business in Millville (Samano
Brothers). They were responsible for many of the alterations done
at the farmhouse, and much of the brick laying done all over town.
By the 1930's, the brickyard operation was growing smaller,
and the clay in the pits was slowly being used up. Frank Burcham cut
back to only 4 workers. Maud still cooked lunch for the workers, but
there were no boarders, as people could come by car.
Gradually, Janice and Jeanettte's brother Melvin and one other
man did all the brick making. The power to run the brick machine
and the clay car was converted from steam to an old Studebaker
engine that was hooked up to the machinery.
Brother Melvin, (b. 1913) worked at the brickyard until 1942,
when the yard was shut down so the men could go to work in defense
factories to help with the war effort. Melvin went to New York
Shipping in Camden, N.J.; Frank went to Del-bay ship building in
Dorchester.
95
Chapter IV. Sentinn III -- The Proxemics of the Brickyard
Site Plan of the Burcham Property in 1940
(drawn from a 1940 survey photograph on file at the Aerial Photos
Division in Trenton)
Scale: 1 inch = 500 feet
Buildings on the property in 1940:
1 ) farmhouse
2) corncrib
3) barn
4) 2 chicken coops
5) wagon shed
6) pigeon house
7) two tenant houses
8) rail road track
9) clay mixer
10) brick making machine
11) felt rollers
12) 4 drying sheds
13) stack of cord wood
14) the remains of one of three cone-shaped brick kilns
15) site of boat house
16) old barge, on the right of the pier
17) shipping pier built to ship sand, used once
18) site of storage shed for fishermen
19) two flat topped, removable wood-roofed modern kilns
20) site of 3 former tenant houses, which were torn down c.1930
21) post and wire fence that kept animals out of industrial site
22) machine shop
23) clay holes
DiKc
Brick making at Burcham's Brickyard
Brickmaking began at the Burcham farm just behind the wagon
shed -- at the clay pits, where clay was dug and thrown up to the
land above. (Map location #21) The clay was shoveled into an old
railroad coal car that had been converted to use on the farm. It was
known as "the clay car," and it held up to two tons of clay. It ran
across the property on a track (location # 8) that began at the clay
pits and ended at the factory buildings. The car ran on flanges,
moving across the property by steam-power (later by engine
power) 1. It ran up a slight incline as it approached the factory
building, (location #9).
At the first factory building, the bottom of the car opened, and
the ciay inside fell into a large wooden bin below the track. This
process was repeated -- the clay car running back and forth to the
clay pits until the bin was full. A bin full of clay was just enough
for a day's work.
When the bin was full, the clay was shoveled into a grinder at
in the next building (location #10). The grinder resembled an
oversized meat grinder, and it made the clay homogenous, crushing
any large particles and mixing it with water. When the clay mixture
reached the right consistency, it moved into the next phase of the
brick making machinery, entering a cast iron mold. (See illustration
p. 99.) The stiff clay was forced through the rectangular mold,
coming out as a long stiff bar of mud, the exact width of a brick. It
moved along a conveyor belt made of felt rollers (seen as location
#11) and Frank Burcham measured each brick with a form and cut the
lengths free with a wire. He stood each brick up on end, and placed
it onto a wooden pallet. (See illustrations of clay manufacturing
implements, p. 100.)
After he had filled eight pallets with bricks, the pallets were
taken to the drying sheds (location #14) by wheel barrow. The
^ At first a steam boiler pulled the clay car up the ramp by cable. Later (late 30*s), it was
powered by the engine of an old Studebaker car.
97
pallets were heavy, weighing 40 pounds each. They were hoisted up
high and stacked 6 or 8 feet high on a tier. (See illustration p. 100.)
The drying shed had doors on its east and west sides, which provided
maximum air circulation when opened, and good protection from
wind and rain when closed. There was room for one hundred
thousand bricks in each shed. They were left to dry for about 6
weeks. Then they were ready for the kiln.
Dried bricks were moved to the kilns by wheel barrow, 40
bricks at a time. (See illustration, p. 100.) They were carefully
spaced -- stacked by hand in the kiln -- then fired for a week. They
burned 24 hours a day for 7 days, while 2 or 3 men took turns
remaining on duty to monitor their progress.
At the beginning of the burning, the roofs of kilns were closed,
covered over by the large wooden doors with which the modern, flat-
topped down-draft kilns were topped. (See illustration, p. 101, and
photo of the remains of one of the old circular kilns on p. 102)
These new kilnswere probably on the property by 1907.
On the 5th day of burning, the workmen began to open the roof
" taking it off slowly piece by piece. The heat inside the kiln was
intense. As they opened the roof, they poured mud on the hot bricks.
After the seventh day, the fire in the kiln was out, and the bricks
were left to cool for a week.
The brick workers alternated kilns, burning one kiln at a time
beginning in early Spring and continuing until late Fall. The wood for
the firing was cut on the burcham's 99-acre wood lot across the
Port Elizabeth road.
At the height of the Burcham brick making period, fifteen
thousand bricks were produced in this way each week.
98
I l!ri.'k iin.l Til.) Mu.-Ii
Tliia cut represents
pur (liiy. Siiriiussoii t.y m
Wu nUo mrLiiufactiii
pff tliij-.
We also innniifHrhiro Pitj Mil.f-s, Kt,Ev.vTiir(s, |',ii , !■;
Si'iiii fur (■iriiulur nf iiiii' fJinMLXTiiH, ll i-. Iln- li.i.li-i
i ' II ur Kri.k f.. . I'i,ni.L'l..ii l<iiiil..-ll llnrU f... ;iii.
■ "CmrAlur- Nn,2. Oiiparity fniin :«l.iK10 (<> 10.000 brick
"OHICACO" No. ;-i, Ciipiicily Inini Hi,iHKi to \\\X*.\ brick
•■RICES REASONABLE.
1 say : Alsip Drick To., Hiiyt .t Alsip f'n., May, PnriiiK-
CORRESPONDENCE SOLICITED.
Machinery tor Building Brick
^^and ror street pavers^^
ROUND CORNER PAVING BRICK without REPRESSING
THE CHAMBERS AUTOMITIG SIDE-CUT BRICK MACHINE.
Automatic End Cut Brick Machines of five sizes, iiaving capacity
from 10,000 to over 100,000 brick daily under
favorable conditions.
CHAMBERS BROTHERS COMPANY
DAVIS BROWN, Chicago Agent,
59 West Jackson Boulevard.
52D AND MEDIA STREETS
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
q^
NO. 4, BRICK BARROW.
pier JQ \Ao\d bnck p<^Hets
6 BRICK HAND MOULD.
MACHINE lYIOULD.
Borcha/yi Bnckiyarrl.
cf^y car
\oo
7^« Monarch Continuous I5iln.
(Patented August 5, 1803.)
rtiPotiir kiln ever Invented that llres on the top with furnace.* It Isestk-olillr designed for
burning line w.iris. aucu m Terra Ooiti. Fine I'rwiied Brick, CIhj shingles. Firi Brick. Sihca BricK.
AnTrteiircadeKreeof heatcan beoblilned witli 85 percent, less tuel than tbf* oid siy.e Klitis. Itruia
both ij()and down drari, also horizontal dratt. II has botu outilde ami inside drdit. ta. h cliambiT
l> fired In thrpo dlflpreit p| ices and under "Tfect control. Noexoenslve v^Iveilami'crs or fee d h*-!??
re.ju red A I In search of n better cN<!S kiln should write for circular. The kiln cannot be built for
noihlni- but It 1 < coiislderablr cheaper Ilian any other continuous tunnel kiln in the markel.
<Ot\ner ^o (llfsWiioas are <5yai^(es
©p PUd -foppcd / dom dfa^ Ki/tis
liK^e tUose "tt/i^f ui/cv^ kvil+ <^+
io replace, eorliev" round k^ili^s.
(\lWs+rfttiOM^ -M.k:<:ri fron/i Clay lA/orKle*^
LOUIS H. REPPEI.i;s
Improved IJilns
FOR BURNING
ALL KINDS OF WARES.
Ili.> iibuvu cut reiirc^ents my rtccritly [>iitejil<.,l Iimin lir.in Kllii In ulililj I
liivo eornljIriMl all tin- iwlntii of merit tlwt have tieeji Icmiul iiecssarj ami valnal,!.'
I y years of oxDerlence In the burnlriK of till" iibovi- style klljH
lOl
plaoio ia<ev)(rOM old pier. ^I'tms old bar^^
014 "Mi^di^cr" us^ 4o r^plrayjc:*'^ 'n f^^^s
I'ifcl p/)ok> sliOkOs -sArVy c:»ny;l<xr Kvln
[OZ
Bricik Kiln at Millville 1902
Hers & CD:Ldc-n
'Z'i^B^^^^---^
lf#!l^-S
EesB & Golden Clay Pit 1902
Euckshnt.jm.
-yi«».«3l
jfr:^-
Eurcliem's Brioli Yarc
telow Millvillo.
190£
iO-4-
::5r:HE^:D166EIVIirSAT^
'ALli-MATTERjS
-^;TQ-fME — ^
iF(9'NT^HKPS-t
tn
Ourstlyes—hleclricily in Drick PlunI'
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South Jersey Brick and Drain Tile Works.
A. E. BURCHAM,
PROPRIETOR.
All grades of Brick furhlshed, and anything
you -want made from Clay to Order.
WORKS AT MANANTICO.
P. O. Address, nillville, N.y.
w^:>
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Chapter IV. Section IV -- History of the Farmhouse
The earliest identified farnnhouse building on the Burcham
property was a one-room, hall-plan structure that stood at the north
end of the existing house. Its small size and high pitched roof
suggest an 18th century date of construction. The building was
demolished in 1961, and the only evidence we have of its appearance
are three photos taken that year.
The photos show a 1 1/2 storey gable-end house with three
bays, a center entry and an interior-end chimney on the west side.
The photos, which were taken from the north, show a north-facing
entrance which faces the road. It seems unlikely, though, that this
was the principal entrance of the house, as there was a
corresponding door on the south side of the house, facing the river.
As additions were built on the south side of the house, the
south-facing door was covered over to become the entrance to the
newer sections of the house. The north door became the only
107
exterior entrance for the wood cabin, and the northern, road-side
entrance to the expanded house.
The early building was a wood frame structure, which was
sheathed in clapboards and covered by a wood shingle roof. It was
built with close eaves and an off-center window in the half-storey
of the west gable end. The photos show patched clap boarding at the
southwest corner of the house, patching that was probably done at
the time the hearth was removed.
The foundation of the wood house is clearly shown in the
photos " it was made of brick with cellar windows. Other
foundation stones can be found at the south end of the wood house
site. They were probably the foundation stones of an earlier
building.
The First addition
The photographs also show the first addition to the original
house " a small brick ell that still stands on the site. This addition
is a 1 1/2 story gable roof structure with a western facade. This
change of orientation -- from the north and south entrances to a
western facade - was probably a compromise between the two
paths people took to the house and the store: some came by river,
others by road. The front door and windows of this facade can still
be seen inside a shed-roofed structure that covers the entire width
of the western facade.
Unfortunately, the window sash of this facade gives no clue as
to the date of the first addition, as it is new. The door has two
vertical panels at the bottom and four glass panes at the top. This
would be appropriate for a 19th century house. Clay Worker
magazines that were found under the carpeting of this brick ell
ranged in date from 1883 to 1903. They were probably laid during
the 1907 renovation and enlargement of the house, as newspapers
were commonly used as insulation in that period.
If this brick ell were added to the early hall plan house in the
mid-1 9th century, then the early wood structure might have been
updated at that time. This might explain the plain door frame, four-
paneled door and plain window frames in six over six sash that are
108
seen in the original house, as these are details that were typically
used in mjd-19th century building. A basement kitchen was probably
added to the house at the time the ell was constructed, and the store
may have been created by enclosing the porch space in front of the
ell.
While the gothic addition was being built, the Burcham family
lived in the older parts of the house and cooked in the basement
kitchen. After the building was completed, a new kitchen was built
in the basement under the conservatory for Amaziah and Mary. Frank
and Maud Burcham had their kitchen in the new Gothic addition.
The Gothic Revival Addition
About 1907, the last major addition was added to the house. It
consisted of a new southern front -- a brick, Gothic Revival building
of the type that had been built all across the Delaware valley about
50 years earlier. It was a design taken straight from the popular
architectural pattern books of A.J. Downing or Calvert Vaux -- a
building with a high pitched roof and a central gable with gable
returns.
The new addition was a 2 1/2 storey brick building that still
stands. It is above grade on the south and west sides of the house,
where the ground falls away. On the north and the east sides of the
house, the lower level is a basement. The Gothic addition was home
for Frank and Maud and their children, the younger generation of
Burchams. The older generation -- Amaziah and his wife Mary lived
partly in the wood house, and partly in the basement, traveling down
the stairs in the store to reach their basement kitchen, spring house,
living room and dining room. "Grandma's living room" as the first
floor of the wood frame house was known, had an organ in it, on the
wall in the space where the fireplace had been. Brickyard workers
also lived in the expanded house, in the upstairs bedrooms of the old
wood structure.
The Interior of the Gothic Addition
Though the exterior of the new building was a standard pattern
book form, the interior was not. The plan of the house was
109
haphazard, not resembling anything found in an architectural
pattern book, it seems to be the accidental product of cumulative
building.
In fact, the house was built without a main facade. Its most
elegant or dramatic facade is its south facade, which features a high
pitched central gable and a raised porch across its entire width at
the first floor level. But despite its dramatic features, the south
facade has no entrance. Like many old Southern plantation houses, it
was designed to present an elegant face to the river.
The porch, which was built on wood piers, seems particularly
ornamental. (The piers were long ago replaced by concrete block.)
While it did give the family an excellent spot for viewing the river,
it was nonetheless narrow and hard to reach, as it had no front
door.
The entrance to the house was on the west side, through the
kitchen. As in the earlier brick ell design, the west side was a
convenient compromise entrance between the two directions from
which people arrived at the property. Those who arrived from the
road, approached the north face of the building. Those who arrived
by water, approached from the south.
At the time of its construction, the porch on the south side of
the building wrapped around the full width of this west end with an
entrance that was centered on the gable. This west end porch and
the porch or store in front of the brick ell were both enclosed by a
shed in the 19th century. A conservatory/kitchen wing and a two-
storey shed building was also attached to the east face of the
building soon after 1907 building was completed. The second floor
of the shed was another bedroom used for unmarried workers.
The brick walls of the basement kitchen still exists at the
site, and the roof line of the glass conservatory and wood shed
buildings could be seen as recently as last summer. This face has
since been covered over with stucco. A stair that led from the pantry
up to the second floor of the shed building also still exists.
110
Delaware Vallev Vernacular Architecture
The history of changes in the Burcham farmhouse is sinnllar to
those of many other vernacular buildings in the Delaware region.
Like many of the houses identified in Bernard Herman's "first period"
of house building in Newcastle county Delaware, it began with a
simple one-room wood frame house. i In the second period of house
building, these houses were updated by the incorporation of kitchens
and other service rooms into the main block of the building. Herman
described the pattern as follows:
"At the close of the 18th century, the typical farmhouse stood
as a separate structure unencumbered with kitchens, food
storage areas or specifically designated servants quarters.
All of the working functions associated with the house were
nearby in a number of lesser, free-standing buildings. By the
time of the 1816 tax assessment, though, the first step had
been taken to physically enlarging the house to incorporate a
number of these functions under one roof. "2
The owners of the Burcham property seem to have been no
exceptions: they re-ordered the living space of the first period
house, by adding a brick ell to the house, and creating a basement
kitchen. The trend towards incorporating functional rooms under the
roof of the main house was a part of a more general pattern of the
"diversification of interior space," or the creation of rooms with
special functions.
In Herman's Folk building in Central Dalaware, there are three
examples of vernacular buildings that seem to relate to the Burcham
house though they are four very different houses. They are the David
Wilson House, the Samuel Corbitt house, and the Armstrong-Walker
House.
David Wilson's house in Odessa had a brick ell added to the rear
of the main block in 1816. While the Wilson house was a much
larger and more advanced building. The Burcham brick ell that may
have been added about 1850, also began this process of adding new
^Bernard Herman. Architectural and Rural Life in central Delaware, p. 26
2 Ibid. p. 148.
111
spaces to the overall plan of the house. In both cases, the original
block remained much as it was.
The second house is the Corbitt house, which was built in the
1770's. In this house, as in the Burcham's, the spatial reordering
included the construction of a basement kitchen. The Corbitt's
basement kitchen was built at least 50 years before the Burcham's,
however. Theirs was built about 1790. The Corbitt house design also
had a kitchen that was constructed under an office building. In the
Burcham house, a kitchen was constructed under the conservatory
office shortly after 1907.
Widespread house re-modeling took place throughout the
Delaware area in the 1820s and 30s, according to Herman, as older
houses received their new service wings. Some, though, did not
receive them until 1850."3 The Burcham farmhouse, then, would
have been on the late end of the trend. This time lag is perhaps
logical, as the farm was located far from the influence of the city.
The third building that the Burcham house resembles is the
Armstrong Walker house that is pictured on the front of Herman's
book. From the river, the Burcham's Gothic addition looks very much
like the Armstrong-Walker house, as both as brick expressions of
the same high pitched central gable pattern book house.
In this way, the Burcham farmhouse is also a typical example
of 19th century vernacular homes in the region, as farmers relied on
the architectural drawings provided in popular magazines.
The Burcham's gothic addition was simply tacked onto the
older buildings, a false front that was clearly a very late expression
of the mid 19th century style - again in this case, about 50 years
behind the buildings on the other side of the Delaware.
Ibid.
112
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Chapter IV. Section V -- Family History
Amaziah E. Burcham
Amaziah Burcham was born in Ellington, Connecticut on
September 21, 1841, the fifth child of James T. and Arpatia Emmons
BurchamJ He joined the Union army on July 16, 1862 at Ludlow,
Massachusetts, listing his age as 21 years. He was 5 feet 4 3/4
inches tall at that time, had grey eyes and light brown hair. When he
enlisted, he was working for his father as a miller in Jencksville,
Massachusetts, a small village near Ludlow. He enlisted for three
years, and was paid $25 of his $100 bounty, the remainder being
payable after the war.
Amaziah mustered into the army at Camp Briggs in Pittsfield,
Massachusetts on September 2, 1862. He was a private in Captain
Flagg's company, the 37th Regiment of the Massachusetts Infantry.
By December first of that year, he had been promoted to Corporal,
but was demoted again in February of 1864.
Burcham was a sharpshooter at the Brigadier Headquarters in
October 1864, and a Division sharpshooter in May 1865.
Discharged from the army on June 21, 1865 at Boston,
Massachusetts, Amaziah traveled down to South Jersey to his
parents new home. They had moved to the new industrial town while
he was away at war.
Four years later, Amaziah Burcham, 27, married Mary Clunn, 26
at her father's house on Maurice River. (The large farm directly up
river from the brickyard.) Reverend C.K. Fleming of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in Millville performed the ceremony. Willis Ackley,
a neighbor, Francis Reeves, Joseph Richman and Mary Wlllits were
some of the guests. The couple moved to the farm next to her
parents, the Burcham farm, that is, which had recently begun
producing bricks.
Amaziah and Mary, lived with his father, James, his mother,
Arpatia, and his three younger siblings, Joseph, Emma, and Eleonora,
and some resident hired hands at the beginning of their marriage.
1 Amaziah was one of 1 1 children.
122
As both the brick yard and the family grew, the farmhouse was
expanded to include eight children and 8 to 12 workers.
Frank Burcham takes over the Brickyard
Amaziah and Mary had 8 children. Frank A. Burcham was the
fourth. Frank A. Burcham married Maud D. Jones on April 17, 1907,
and the farmhouse was expanded once again. Frank took over his
father's business in 1913, rescuing it from bankruptcy by re-
mortgaging the property (Adrian Clunn was the lender) and taking
over the daily operations.
Amaziah had been incapacitated by alcoholism. He died March
22, 1917 at the age of 75 years and 6 months. The cause of death
was a fractured skull caused by an accident falling down stairs.
Mary Clunn Burcham continued to live in the house until her death on
July 28, 1928.
Frank and Maud Jones Burcham had four children -- two boys,
Russell and Melvin, and 2 twin girls, Janice and Jeannette.
Melvin Burcham lived at home and worked at the brick factory for
many years. Later he worked for his brother Russell Burcham who
owned Burcham Trucking and The Burcham Block and Cement
Company on Rte 47. Skyhawk trucking is now located on the site.
Jeanette Burcham is still a school teacher in the Millville City
Schools, but she has also worked overseas. Her twin, Janice was the
head nurse and commander of the U.S.S. Sanctuary, a hospital ship
that was stationed in Vietnam from 1970-71. She retired to the
farm after 27 1/2 years in the U.S. Navy. Brother Melvin Burcham
had five children, some of whom still live in Millville. Russell
Burcham had no children.
123
'^amcc ^ Jeanne H'c ^V^rdnavii
!
Chapter IV. Section VI -- Burcham property today
Today, the brickyard is gone, but the Burcham farm is still in
operation. In 1986, it received the Century Farm award, which is
given to farms that have been operated by the same family for more
than 100 years. This summer, the Burcham sisters grew 1500 bales
of hay on the property. They stored 1000 bales in the barn and sold
the rest for $2/bale out of the field and $4/bale out of the barn.
They also raised chickens, turkeys, geese, pigs and sheep.
Their farm schedule includes buying 6 infant pigs every 3 1/2
months, and feeding them left over restaurant food until they are
ready for the butcher. Janice collects the leftovers from local
restaurants daily, making a noon trip to pick them up in 20 five-
gallon buckets. She stops at Benny's, Gib's Lunch, Snacktime, Port o
Call, and The Pinegrove.
Janice also stops at the produce market to pick up vegetables
that have just passed the shelf date limit. They are feed for the
chickens, ducks and sheep. The chickens prefer lettuce and cabbage,
but also dip into the restaurant foods, and are particularly fond of
Chinese food. . The Muscovy ducks stick mostly to lettuce. The
sheep eat scallions, corn and hay, grazing on the hay in the fields in
summer, eating it out of the barn in the winter. Janice Burcham
stresses that the foods their animals are fed are leftovers, not
garbage, and are never rotten.
Daily schedule
The Burcham sisters are identical twins, and at 68, they still
like to do things together. They dress alike -- usually in blue jeans
and navy blue sweatshirts, but tell their friends that its easy to tell
them apart because their wear their watches on different arms.
Their daily schedule includes get up every morning at 7 a.m.,
and each eating 3 eggs and sausage, juice, toast and coffee.
Promptly at 8 a.m., they feed the sheep, chickens, pigs.
At 11 a.m., Janice gets in the truck to make the daily garbage
run to local restaurants. She picks up enough food for two feedings
125
-- that night's dinner and the next morning's breakfast. The animals
do not eat lunch.
When she returns, the sisters unload the truck, unwrapping the
produce, and separating it into meals for the animals. At 4 p.m.,
they feed the animals again.
They began tidying up their property in the 60's. Since then
they have torn down the remains of the old factory buildings and
kilns, removed the early sections of the house have been removed,
and burned the records of the brick factory.
Costs of maintaining dvkes and propertv
Over the last few years the cost of maintaining the dikes has
ranged from $5,000 to $20,000 dollars. These costs are basically
labor costs, payments for hauling concrete and brick refuse out to
the dike. The dikes have been maintained for the last 30 years by
Tommy Piatt, who hauls donated refuse from torn down buildings out
to the dikes on a dump truck he designed for that purpose -- the
dumper drops the fill sideways out of the truck, so he can drive
along the dike and discharge masonry as he goes.
In 1994, the Burchams also paid $6,000 to take down the pier
on the property. The pier was built in 1935 by the NJ Silica Sand
company, a company that leased a bit of property and bought the
riparian rights (the right to build to low water mark) to threaten the
railroad. They only used the pier once to ship sand. After that the
railroad prices came down.
Burcham sisters still own the 99 acre tract across the Port
Elizabeth (Rte 47) road. It is under a forestry program. A private
consultant marks the trees that need to be cut each year. The wood
is given away.
In the last year they have also been burning all the old roots
tangle at the middle of the property and leveling out the old clay pit.
The few railroad ties that are left from the clay car track that went
through the center of the property have been removed. Maple, oak
and pine trees have grown up in the old clay pit. They have also
stuccoed over the bricks on the east facade of the farmhouse.
126
What remains of the Brickyard history
The brickyard period of the Burcham farm has been totally
erased from the property, the only hint of its former role remaining
in the trace of red clay in the road. The dykes, too are changed from
the old days. No longer permitted to be built of mud, they are
fortified by concrete block and rubber tires. The tenant workers are
gone, and the only farmers there are two aging twin sisters who are
startlingly able to get the work done. The farm goes on in its new
slightly romantic twentieth-century yersion, a kind of local tourist
attraction or historic estate. Eyery year, the Burcham's sheep
shearing is a popular event, attended by about 150 of the Burcham's
friends, all of whom love to come to the property at the mouth of the
Menantico. On the "island," they are surrounded on all sides by water
and the exquisite wildlife it supports. Rail birders bring their boats
here to launch. Watercolorists paint in the light-filled environment,
and two sisters cling to the history of their family and the river.
They get up each morning to check the dykes, both loving and hating
the rise and fall of the tides as keenly as the first Swedes on the
Delaware.
127
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Appendix I -- The "Burcham" property Chain of Title
This property is the sanne 35 acre farm that Amaziah bought
from John McClure in 1867. It is block 217, lot 48 on the old (1975)
tax assessment maps, 35 acres, and Block 579, lot 1 on the new
(1985) map, 28.07 acres.
1951 Burcham to Burcham
From Maud Jones Burcham to Janice and Jeannette Burcham by will,
April 19, 1951.
1915. Burcham to Burcham. Liber 342 pp. 438-441
Amaziah and Mary Burcham to Frank A. and Maud Burcham, three
properties, the first of which is the farm.
1897. Mortaaae Mulford to Burcham
Hershel Mulford of Millville (the bank) to Mary R. Burcham, $1600.
1896. Mortaaae Repaid. Book F p 491
Mary R. Burcham repays Adrian Clunn $1600 and the mortgage is
cleared.
1895. Mortgage Clunn to Burcham. Book 53 of Mortgages, p. 473
Adrian Clunn, brother to Mary R. Burcham and Amaziah, $3,200, a
mortgage that will be cleared if he is repaid $1600 in a year's time.
1 1/30/95
1869. McClure to Burcham. Liber CW pp. 675-9
John G. and Louisa McClure of Salem County to Amaziah E. Burcham
of Millville, 35 acres
1865. Snyder to McClure, Liber CH p. 123
Peter and Mary Snyder to John Mc Clure of the same place
1864. Swan to Snider. Liber CF pp. 84
Moses T. Swan of Millyille to Peter Snider of the same place
35 acres $1,300
1862. Frease to Swan. Liber CA. p. 302
John and Mary Frease of Maurice Riyer Township to Moses T. Swan
131
of Millviile, $1400, 35 acresi
1855. Loper to Frease. Liber BP or 88. pp. 204-5
Hannah Loper of Millviile to John Frease of the same place 35 acres
$1,100
1855. Wilson to Loper. Liber BO or 87. pp. 324-5
George and Mary Ann Wilson of Millviile to Hannah Loper of Millviile,
35 acres $1,000
1852, Robinson to Wilson. Liber BK pp 83
Aaron G. and Rachel Robinson of Millviile to George Wilson of
Cumberland County 35 acres $1,000
1850. Sutton to Robinson. Liber BG pp. 574
John P. and Ann Sutton of Cumberland County (who obtained the
property from John's mother and sister Mary after Jacob Sutton's
death, intestate) to Aaron G. and Rachel Robinson of the same place
31 acres $100 1/15/18502
1840 Butcher to Sutton. Liber AS dp. 593
1 BEGINNING AT A WHITE OAK STANDING BY THE EDGE OF THE UPLAND ON THE LOWER
SIDE OF AN ISLAND AND IS CORNER TO JOB WATSON'S MEADOW, THENCE BOUNDING THEREON
NORTH 40 DEGREES EAST ONE CHAIN AND FIFTY LINKS TO THE CURVE ? OF A DFTCH; THENCE
ALONG SAID DITCH NORTH 13 AND A HALF DEGREES WEST FIVE CHAINS AND TWENTY FIVE
LINKS TO WHERE A BRIDGE WAS FORMERLY OVER SAID DITCH THENCE NORTH 20 DEGREES WEST
12 CHAINS AND 8 LINKS TO A GUM TREE OUTSIDE THE BANKS
THENCE NORTH 47 DEGREES. WEST 6 CHAINS. MORE OR LESS IF LOW WATER MARK IN MAURICE
RIVER . THENCE DOWN THE RIVER BOUNDING ON LOW WATER MARK TO SAID JOB WATSON'S
CORNER , THENCE ALONG HIS MEADOW TO THE PLACE OF BEGINNING. CONTAINING ABOUT 35
ACRES MORE OR LESS.
ALSO THE RIGHT OF WAY OVER JOB WATSON'S AS CONVEYED BY DANIEL ELMER TO
CORNELIUS GARRISON DEED OCT 22, 1832
2
BEGINNING AT EDGE OF MAURICE RIVER AT THE CORNER OF THE PLANTATION OF
JONATHAN GRAY ABOVE MENANTICO CREEK 1) NORTH 3 1/2 DEGREES WEST BY GRAY'S LINE
FOURTEEN RODS TO AN OLD WHITE OAK CORNER, 2) NORTH 39 DEGREES EAST 6 RODS TO
ANOTHER CORNER OF SAID GRAY 3) NORTH 12 1/2 DEGREES WEST 21 ROD TO ANOTHER OF
GRAY'S CORNER 4) NORTH 1 9 DEGREES WEST 48 RODS 20 LINKS TO ANOTHER OF GRAY'S
CORNERS 5) NORTH 46 WEST 8 RODS TO MAURICE RIVER, THENCE DOWN THE SAME BINDING
LOW WATER MARK THE SEVERAL COURSES THEREOF TO THE PLACE OF BEGINNING , CONTAINING
31 ACRES OF LAND AMD MEADOW BE THE SAME MORE OR LESS. BEING THE PLACE
PURCHASED OF DR. JOSEPH BUTCHER IN TWO DEEDS ....
This is the same property description but fewer acres.
132
Dr. Joseph and Rebecca Butcher to Jacob Sutton 15 more acres,
another $700^
1839. Butcher to Sutton. Liber AR dp 117
Joseph and Rebecca Butcher of Cumberland County to Jacob Sutton of
the same place 15 acres $650^
1838. Garrison to Butcher. Liber AQ pp. 282
Cornelius and Rachel Garrrison, Chesapeake Cty, to Joseph Butcher
of Downe, Cumberland County 60 acres for $1300
1832. Elmer to Garrison. Liber AG pp. 449-51
1825 Brannon's property sold by Dan Simkins, Sheriff, reverts to
Daniel Elmer temporarily. Elmer grants property to Garrison in
1825, but the deed is not registered until November 16, 1832
Daniel and Martha Elmer of Bridgeton to Cornelius Garrison of
Downe Township, 60 acres $1200
^ BEGINNING AT A WHITE OAK STANDING BY THE EDGE OF THE UPLAND ON THE LOWER
SIDE OF AN ISLAND CORNER OF ISAAC BUZBYS MEADOW THENCE BINDING THEREON NORTH 39
DEGREES EAST SIX RODS TO THE ? OF A DITCH THENCE ALONG THE DITCH NORTH 12 1/2
DEGREES WEST 21 RODS TO A CORNER OF ISAAC BUZBY'S AND JACOB SUTTON'S U\ND THENCE
SOUTH ALONG SAID SUTTON'S LINE 27 1/2 DEGREES WEST 19 RODS TO A CORNER AT THE
EDGE OF THE UPLANDAND NEAR THE HEAD OF A DITCH ? THEN TO SHEEP MEADOW THENCE
NORTH 80 1/2 DEGREES WEST 54 RODS AND 13 LINKS ALONG SAID DITCH TO A CORNER OF
JACOB SUTTON'S MEADOW THENCE SOUTH TWO DEGREES WEST 27 RODS AND FOURTEEN LINKS
TO LOW WATER MARK OF MAURICE RIVER THENCE DOWN THE SAME AND BINDING THEREON TO
THE SAID ISAAC BUZBY'S CORNER THENCE BINDING ON HIS MEADOW NORTH 3 1/2 DEGREES
WEST 14 RODS TO THE BEGINNING. CONTAINING 15 ACRES 1 ROD AND 20 PERCHES OF
UPLAND AND MEADOW BE THE SAME MORE OR LESS. ALSO ALL THAT ? WAY AND
RIGHT OF GOING OVER THE U\ND OF THE SAID ISAAC BUZBY ADJOINING THE ABOVE TRACT AS
CONVEYED TO JOHN BRANNON BY DANIEL ELMER, FORMER OWNER OF SAID PREMISES ....
4 BEGINNING AT A STAKE IN THE DITCH WHERE FORMERLY THERE WAS A BRIDGE AND IS 6
CHAIN AND 75 LINKS UPON THE LINE ABOVE AN OLD WHITE OAK TREE BEING THE ORIGINAL
BEGINNING OF THE ISLAND PU\CE AND CORNER OF MEADOW BELONGING TO ISAAC BUZBY
THENCE FROM SAID STAKE BINDING ON ISAAC BUZBY'S LINE NORTH 19 DEGREES WEST 48 RODS
AND 20 LINKS TO A GUM TREE OUTSIDE OF BANK THENCE NORTH 46 DEGREES WEST 8 RODS
MORE OR LESS TO LOW WATER MARK OF MAURICE RIVER THENCE BINDING ON SAID RIVER AND
DOWN THE SAME THE SEVERAL COURSES THEREOF TO A STAKE STANDING IN THE BANK A
SHORT DISTANCE FROM THE POINT OF MEADOW OPPOSITE WILLIAM HEALEY'S THENCE NORTH 2
DEGREES EAST 27 RODS AND 1 7 LINKS TO THE CENTER OF A LARGE DITCH THENCE NORTH 80
1/2 DEGRESS EAST 54 RODS AND 13 LINKS ALONG SAID DITCH TO A STAKE IN THE EDGE OF
THE UPLAND, THENCE NORTH 77 1/2 DEGREES EAST 19 RODS ACROSS THE ISLAND OF UPLAND
TO THE PLACE OF BEGINNING CONTAINING 15 ACRES. ONE ROAD AND 20 PERCHES OF
LAND AND MEADOW BE THE SAME MORE OR LESS WHICH IS PART OF A TRACT OF LAND
JOSEPH BUTCHER BECAME SEIZED OF FROM CORNELIUS GARRISON. . . .
133
1816. Elmer to Brannon. December 18 Liber GG pp. 409-11
Daniel Elmer, Esq. and Martha to John Brannon 60 acres $3,200^
1815. Elmer to Lannning. Liber BB pp. 82-83.
Daniel Elmer to John Lanning , Jr. 170 acres, not including the
Burcham farm. Elmer retains a right of way across Lanning's
property to the Burcham site.
3/15/1815
no record of a deed between Ewing and Elmer, possibly because both
men Ewing^ and Elmer'' were lawyers and N. J. Supreme court
justices.
1814. Izard to Ewing
NICHOLAS IZARD sells home farm TO CHARLES EWING - the same property his grandfather
left to his parents in 1758. 5/1 0/1 81 4^
= BEGINNING AT A WHITE OAK STANDING BY THE EDGE OF THE UPLAND AND ON THE
LOWER SIDE OF AN ISLAND CALLED THE LARGE ISU\ND AT THE END OF A BANK THENCE NORTH
40 DEGREES EAST BOUNDING ON JOHN LANNING JUNIORS MARSH A MEADOW 1 CHAIN AND 50
LINKS TO A STAKE AT THE TURN OF A DITCH THENCE ALONG THE DITCH NORTH 13 1/2 DEGREES
WEST 4 CHAINS AND 20 LINKS TO A BRIDGE OVER SAID DITCH NORTH 20 DEGREES WEST 12
CHAINS AND 80 LINKS TO A GUM TREE OUTSIDE THE BANK THEN NORTH 47 DEGREES WEST 6
CHAINS MORE OR LESS TO LOW WATER MARK OF MAURICE RIVER THENCE DOWN SAID RIVER
BOUNDING ON LOW WATER MARK UNTIL A CORNER SOUTH 3 DEGREES EAST FROM THE
BEGINNING CORNER WILL INTERSECT THE SAME (CORNER OF LANNING) THENCE NORTH 3
DEGREES WEST ABOUT 5 CHAINS 50 LINKS TO THE BEGINNING CONTAINING ABOUT 60 ACRES OF
LAND, MEADOWS AND MUDFLAT BE THE SAME MORE OR LESS AND ALSO THAT FREE AND
CONVENIENT RIGHT OF WAY OF GOING OVER THE U\ND BELONGING TO JOHN LANNING JR.
GRANTED TO THE SAID DANIEL ELMER HIS HEIRS AND ASSIGNS BY THE SAID JOHN LANNING JR.
BY DEED DATED THE 15 TH DAY OF MARCH, 1815 .. . .
6 Chas Ewing was Chief justice of the NJ Supreme Court in 1824.
^ Daniel Elmer was in law practice in Bridgeton until1841, when he was appointed to
the NJ Supreme Court.
^THIS INDENTURE MADE THE TENTH DAY OF MAY IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND
AND EIGhfTY HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN BETWEEN NICHOLAS IZARD OF THE COUmY OF FAYETTE IN
THE STATE OF KENTUCKY OF THE ONE PART AND CHARLES EWING OF TRENTON IN THE COUrvTTY
OF HUNTERDON AND STATE OF NJ OF THE 2ND PART, WITNESSES THAT THE SAID NICHOLAS
IZARD FOR AND IN CONSIDERATION OF THE SUM OF ONE DOLLAR TO HIM IN HAND PAID
BY THE SAID CHARLES EWING . . . GRANTED. . . LAND SITUATE IN THE TOWNSHIP OF MILLVILLE;
BEGINNING AT THE MOUTH OF A CREEK THAT EMPTIES INTO MAURICE RIVER KNOWN BY
THE NAME OF MENANTICO CREEK, THEN UP THE SAID CREEK BOUNDING ON THE
SEVERAL COURSES THEREOF TO A MAPLE STANDING BY THE SIDE THEREOF AND
THE LINE OF JOHN SCOTT'S 10K ACRES, THENCE SOUTH 67 DEGREES WEST 200
PERCHES ALONG THE SAID LINE TO A WHITE OAK BY THE SOUTH SIDE OF SAID
MAURICE'S RIVER, THENCE DOWN THE SAID RIVER BOUNDING ON THE SEVERAL
COURSES THEREOF TO THE BEGINNING CONTAINING 200 ACRES OF LAND,
MEADOW, SWAMP AND CRIPPLE BE THE SAME MORE OR LESS, AND ALSO ALL
THE TREES, WOODS, UNDERWOODS, PROFITS, ADVANTAGES, HEREDITAMENTS
134
1759. Izard to Izard Will
Will of Gabriel Iszard leaves his home farm on the Maurice river and
the upper side of Menantico creek, as well as the farm he bought
from Peter Hoffman located on said river and the lower side of
Menantico Creek to:
wife Martha Iszard, and children Nicholas, Michael, Henry, Catherine,
Priscilla, Sarah, Prudence, Martha
1747. Hoffman to Izard. West Jersey deeds. Liber P. p. 155.
Nicholas Hoffman to Gabriel and Martha Izard, his daughter and son-
in-law, 3/2/1747/89
1738. Hopman to Hoffman, cited in later deed
1/17/1738
John Hoffman to Nicholas, transaction mentioned in deed above:
WHEREAS. JOHN HOFFMAN OF THE COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND AFORESAID BY DIVERS
MENES, CONVEYANCES, AND GOOD ASSURANCES IN HAND DULY HAD AND EXECUTED BECAME
LAWFULLY SEIZED ... TO A CERTAIN PLANTATION OR TRACT OF LAND SITUATE ON THE SAID
SOUTH SIDE OF MAURICE'S RIVER CONTAINING 200 ACRES . . . BEING SEIZED BY HIS INDENTURE
BEARING DATE THE 17TH DAY OF YEAR ANNO DOMIN1 1738 FOR THE CONSIDERATION THEREIN
MENTIONED DID GRANT AND CONVEY THE SAID 200 ACRES OF LAND . . . UNTO THE SAID
NICHOLAS HOFFMAN ....
1736/7 Lummis to Hopman
Feb 20, 1736/7 deed is at Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, PA.
Edward Lummis of Cohansey to John Hoffman
ANS APPURTENANCES WHATSOEVER THE SAID MESSAUGE, TENEMENTS, LANDS AND
PREMISES ABOVE MENTIONED BELONGING OR IN ANY WAY APPERTAINING. . . .
9 THIS INDENTURE MADE THE SECOND DAY OF MARCH, ANNO DOMINI 1 747/8 IN THE
21 ST YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KING GEORGE II BETWEEN NICHOLAS HOFFMAN OF THE SOLTTH SIDE
OF MAURICE'S RIVER IN THE COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND IN THE PROVINCE OF NEW JERSEY,
YEOMAN OF THE ONE PART AND GABRIEL IZARD OF THE SAME PLACE. YEOMAN AND MARTHA,
HIS WIFE OF THE OTHER PART.
NICHOLAS HOFFMAN IN CONSIDERATION OF THE LOVE AND AFFECTION THAT HE
BEARETH TOWARD THEM, THE SAID GABRIEL IZARD AND MARTHA, HIS WIFE, AS HIS SON AND
DAUGHTER . . THE SAID PLANTATION AND TRACT OF LAND:
BEGINNING AT THE MOUTH OF A CREEK, RUNNING INTO THE SAID MAURICE'S RIVER KNOWN
BY THE NAME OF MENANTICO CREEK. RUNS FROM THENCE UP THE SAID CREEK, BOUNDING ON
THE SEVERAL COURSES THEREOF TO A MAPLE STANDING BY SIDE OF SAID CREEK IN THE LINE OF
JOHN SCOTT'S TENTH AND ACRES OF LAND, THENCE SOUTH G7 DEGREES AND 200 PERCHES
ALONG THE SAID LINE TO A WHITE OAK BY THE SOUTH SIDE OF SAID MAURICE'S RIVER. THENCE
DOWN THE SAID RIVER, BOUNDING ON THE SEVERAL COURSES THEREOF TO THE BEGINNING
CONTAINING 200 ACRES OF LAND, SWAMP, AND CRIPPLE
135
From mouth of Manumuskin up to the back line of the Scott tract,
across to Menantico and down the Menantico to Maurice river
800 acres . This deed does not include the Nicholas Hoffman
property.
1735. Scott to Loomis
Edward and Joseph Scott to Edward Loomis. 2/1735
1718. Scott to Scott
will of John Scott to his sons Edward and Joseph Scott of Newport,
Rhode Island.
1705. Bartlett to Scott
Gratia Bartlett, widow and children to John Scott of Newport Rhode
Island, surveyed at 10k acres, but said to have actually contained
more than 20k, 1/26/1705. The 1714 Scott survey, see illustration,
includes the Nicholas Hoffman property.
1691 West Jersey Proprietors to John Bartlett of England.
10,250 acres on the east side of Maurice river. The 1691 proprietary
survey does not seem to include the Nicholas Hoffman property. It
includes many more than 10,000 acres.
136
Appendix II - Deed History of the "Gricco" property
The Gricco property is the farmland nearer to the Menantico,
which was part of Nicholas Hoffman's farm. The dykes on this
property washed out in 50's. The old tax assessment block number
was 217, lot 44, 150 acres. The new one is Block 579 lot 2, 102.36
acres
1946. Gricco to Gricco. Liber 645 p. 456-8
Anthony Gricco to Caroline Gricco, his diyorced wife for $1.
1 1 8 acres
1939. Gray to Gricco. Liber 542 pp. 571-3
Charles M. Gray to Anthony L. Gricco 118 acres for $1, a part of the
land conveyed to Jesse Ackley
1929. Ackley to Gray. Liber 465 pp 547-550
HARRY Ackley (widower) to Charles and Myrtle Gray of Vineland 118
acres for $1. ACKLEY RETAINS 50 ACRES^
1 BEGINNING AT A WHITE OAK STANDING BY THE EDGE OF THE UPLAND AND ON THE LOWER SIDE
OF AN ISLAND CALLED THE LARGE ISLAND AT THE END OF AN OLD BANK , THE SAME BEING A
CORNER OF ONE FRANK A BURCHAM' LAND, AND RUNS FROM THENCE
ALONG THE LINE OF SAID BURCHAMS LAND NORTH 40 DEGREES EAST, 1 CHAIN AND 50 LINKS
TO A STAKE AT THE TURN OF A DITCH, CORNER OF THE SAME. THENCE STILL THEREBY AND
ALONG THE DITCH NORTH 13 1/2 DEGREES WEST 5 CHAINS AND 20 LINKS TO A CORNER OF THE
SAME ; THENCE STILL THEREBY NORTH 20 DEGREES WEST 12 CHAINS AND 80 LINKS TO WHERE
A GREEN GUM TREE FORMERLY STOOD OUTSIDE OF THE BANK, CORNER OF THE SAME; THENCE
STILL THEREBY NORTH 47 DEGREES WEST 6 CHAINS MORE OR LESS TO LOW WATER MARK OF
MAURICE RIVER THENCE UP SAID RIVER BOUNDING ON LOW WATER MARK THER SEVERAL
COURSES AND DISTANCES THEREOF TO SCOTTS LINE ( SO CALLED) THENCE ALONG SAID SCOTT
LINE AND BOUNDING ON THE LINE OF THE LATE SAMUEL CLUNN FARM NORTH 64 DEGREES EAST,
22 CHAINS AND 50 LINKS MORE OR LESS TO A STONE IN SAID LINE, AT THE DISTANCE OF 708
FEET. MEASURED IN A WESTERLY DIRECTION ALONG SAID SCOTT LINE FROM THE CENTER LINE
OF THE STATE HIGHWAY LEADING FROM MILLVILLE TO PORT ELIZABETH, AND IS A CORNER
OF SAID HARRY ACKLEY'S RESERVED LAND ; THENCE ALONG THE LINE OF SAID
RESERVED LAND SOUTH 1 5 DEGREES AND 20 MINUTES EAST 1302 FEET TO A STAKE CORNER
OF THE SAME ; THENCE STILL THEREBY IN PART AND PART BY WALTER H. HINSON'S LAND
NORTH 74 DEGREES AND 40 MINUTES EAST 703 AND 5/10 THS FEET TO A CORNER IN THE
CENTER LINE OF THE AFORESAID STATE HIGHWAY LEADING FROM MILLVILLE TO PT ELIZABETH ;
THENCE ALONG THE CENTER LINE OF SAID STATE HIGHWAY , SOUTH 1 7 DEGREES AND 1 0
MINUTES EAST, 728 FEET, MORE OR LESS TO LOW WATER MARK OF MENANTICO CREEK THENCE
DOWN SAID MENANTICO CREEK BOUNDING ON LOW WATER MARK OF SAID CREEK, THE SEVERAL
COURSES AND DISTANCES THEREOF IN A SOUTHWESTERLY DIRECTION TO MAURICE RIVER
THENCE UP SAID RIVER BOUNDING ON LOW WATER MARK OF SAID RIVER THE SEVERAL COURSES
AND DISTANCES THEREOF IN A NORTHERLY DIRECTION UNTIL A COURSE SOLTTH 3 DEGREES
EAST. FROM THE BEGINNING CORNER WILL INTERSECT THE SAME, THENCE
137
1903. Acklev to Acklev. Liber 269 pp 82-84
SARAH H. ACKLEY, widow, son Willis and Hattie ( his wife) Ackley
to Harry H. Ackley
$500 170 acres excepting 9 acres formerly owned by J and S Shaw.
1868 MacDonald to MacDonald. Liber CU p.186
David and Mary Mac Donald and Joseph W MacDonald, all of
Millville to Jesse C. Ackley of Maurice River 170 acres $8,000
excepting 9 acres now owned by Shaw
1865. Watson to MacDonald. Liber CL pp. 357-8
Job S. and Elizabeth Watson of Greenwich to David Mac Donald,
Jr. and Joseph M. MacDonald of Newark, NJ 170 acres excepting 9
acres owned by J and S Shaw $5,600
I860. Grav to Watson. BX pp. 38-39
Jonathan Gray of Millville to Job S. Watson of Greenwich 170
acres $4, 600, excepting 9 acres owned by J and S Shaw
1840. Busby to Gray. Liber AV or AW pp. 109-110
Isaac and Hannah Busby to Jonathan Gray
170 acres for $3,500, excepting lot of meadow and upland lying in
Menantico Creek now owned by Jonathan Dallas, formerly belonging
to heirs of Leaming deceased.
1837, Lanning to Busbv. Liber AO pp. 584-5
John Jr. and Judith Lanning to Isaac Buzby 170 acres $3,750
not including the 9 acres formerly owned by the heirs of Leaming,
now owned by Jonathan Dallas
... IN THE FORKS OF MENANTICO CREEKAND MAURICE RIVER BOUNDING AS FOLLOWS BEGINNING
AT A WHITE OAK STANDING BY THE EDGE OF THE UPLAND AND ON THE RIVER SIDE OF AN
ISLAND GALLED THE LONG ISLAND AT THE END OF AN OLD BANK THENCE NORTH 40 DEGREES
EAST ONE CHAIN AND 50 LINKS TO A STAKE AT THE TURN OF A DITCH THENCE ALONG THE
DITCH NORTH 13 DEGREES AND A HALF WEST? FIVE CHAINS AND 20 LINKS THENCE SOUTH 20
DEGREES WEST 12 CHAINS AND 80 LINKS TO WHERE A GUM TREE FORMERLY STOOD OUTSIDE OF
THE BANK THENCE SOUTH 47 DEGREES WEST 6 CHAINS MORE OR LESS TO LOW WATER MARK OF
MAURICE RIVER THENCE UP SAID RIVER BOUNDING ON LOW WATER MARK TO SCOTTS LINE SO
CALLED . THENCE BOUNDING WITH SAID LINE NORTH 64 DEGREES EAST 69 CHAINS MORE OR
NORTH 3 DEGREES EAST ABOUT 5 CHAINS AND 50 LINKS TO THE PLACE OF BEGINNING.
LINES 7, 8, 9 ARE TAKEN FROM A MAY 1929 SURVEY
OTHER LINES ARE COPIED FROM AN OLD DEED
Is THERE IS A MAP WITH THIS DEED
GRICCO PROPERTY IS SUBJECT TO A RIGHT OF WAY OWNED BY FRANK BURCHAM OVER THE
DESCRIBED TRACT OF LAND - 20 FEET IN WIDTH.
138
LESS TO LOW WATER MARK OF MENANTICO CREEK BOUNDING ON LOW WATER MARK TO
MAURICE RIVER THENCE UP SAID RIVER BOUNDING ON LOW WATER MARK UNTIL A COURSE
SOUTH 3 DEGREES. EAST FROM THE BEGINNING CORNER WILL INTERSECT THE SAME, THENCE
NORTH 3 DEGREES WEST ABOUT 5 CHAINS 50 LINKS TO THE BEGINNING CONTAINING 170 ACRES
BE THEY THE SAME MORE OR LESS EXCEPTING A LOT OF MEADOW SUPPOSED TO CONTAIN 9
ACRES NOW OWNED BY JONATHAN DALLAS, FORMERLY BELONGING TO THE HEIRS OF LEAMING
DECEASED. . . .
1815. Elmer to Lanning. Liber BB pp. 82-83.
Daniel Elmer to John Lanning , Jr. 170 acres, not including the 9 acres
owned by the heirs of Learning. 2
1814. Nicholas Izard sells property to Charles Ewina. see Burcham
deeds, for history before that transaction.
2 CERTAIN TRACT OF LAND SITUATE IN THE TOWNSHIP OF MILLVILLE IN THE COUNTY OF
CUMBERLAND AFORESAID IN THE FORKS OF CREEK MENANTICO AND MAURICE RIVER BOUNDING
AS FOLLOWS, BEGINNING AT A WHITE OAK STANDING BY THE EDGE OF THE UPLAND AND ON THE
LOWER SIDE OF AN ISLAND CALLED THE LARGE ISLAND AT THE END OF A DITTO ? BANK
THENCEFORTH 40 DEGREES EAST 1 CHAIN AND 50 LINKS TO A STAKE AT THE TURN OF A DITCH
THENCE ALONG THE DITCH NORTH THIRTEEN 1/2 DEGREES WEST 5 CHAINS AND TWENTY LINKS
TO A BRIDGE OVER SAID DITCH THENCE SOUTH 20 DEGREES WEST 12 CHAINS AND 80 LINKS TO
A GUM TREE OUTSIDE OF THE BANK THENCE NORTH 47 DEGREES WEST 6 CHAINS MORE OR LESS
TO LOW WATER MARK OF MAURICE RIVER THENCE UP SAID RIVER BOUNDING ON LOW WATER
MARK TO SCOTT'S LINE SO CALLED THENCE BOUNDING WITH SAID LINE NORTH 64 DEGREES
EAST 69 CHAINS MORE OR LESS TO LOW WATER MARK OF MENANTICO CREEK THENCE DOWN
SAID CREEK BOUNDING ON LOW WATER MARK TO MAURICE RIVER THENCE UP SAID RIVER
BOUNDING ON LOW WATER MARK UNTIL A COURSE SOUTH 3 DEGREES EAST FROM THE
BEGINNING CORNER WILL INTERSECT THE SAME THENCE NORTH 3 DEGREES WEST ABOLTT 5
CHAINS 50 LINKS TO THE BEGINNING CONTAINING 170 ACRES BE THE SAME MORE OR LESS
EXCEPTING A LOT OR TRACT OF CRIPPLE AND UPU\ND LYING ON MENANTICO CREEK SUPPOSED
TO CONTAIN 9 ACRES BELONGING TO THE HEIRS OF LEAMING DECEASED ....
. . . said daniel elmer of the party aforesaid of the first for himself, heirs, executors and
administrators doth hereby covenant promise and grant to and with the said John Lanning, Jr.,
party of the second part, his heirs and assigns that at the time of the dealing and delivery here
of they the deed party of the first part are seized in their own right of an absolute and
indefeatible estate of inheritance in fee simple of and in all and singular the premises hereby
granted with the appurtenances. . . .
139
Appendix III-- Deed History of the "Clunn" Property
This property is adjacent to Burcham property, and was owned
by their great-grandfather, Samuel Clunn, then later by their great-
uncle, Adrian Clunn (who lent Amaziah the $ to buy his property). It
is now owned by Patel. The dike washed out in 1939.
It is #217, lot 41 on the old (1975) tax assessment maps, 160
acres and #579 lot 8 on the new (1985) map, 102.36 acres
1980 Freed to Patel . Liber 1367 p. 343
From Leonard and Gloria Freed
To Babubhai and Ansuya B. Patel
100.57 acres February 18, 1980 for $78,000.
1978 Scrimenti to Freed . Liber 1277 p. 524
From Joseph T. Scrimenti, single man
To Leonard Freed
100.57 6/1/1978 for $63,000.
1942 Scrimenti to Scrimenti . Liber 731 p. 518
From Jean Scrimenti of Brool^lyn, New York
To Joseph Scrimenti of Delsea Drive, Millville
167 11 /1 00s acres for one dollar. 1/7/1942
Charles M and Myrtle Gray to Jean Scrimenti
1932 Tomlinson to Gray. Liber 493, p.115
From Louis and Elizabeth Tomlinson, 9/13/1932
To Charles and Myrtle Gray
2 tracts for $1
Subject to:
1) a $3,500 mortgage that Tomlinson had given the Gray's on
May 2, 1930, recorded in the Book of Mortgages, 250 p. 320
2) a lease the Gray's had given to George and Everett Borden
May 16, 1932 Recorded in Book of Deeds #489, p. 633
1930 Clunn to Tomlinson. Liber 473 p. 509
From Anna and Elizabeth Clunn
To Louis Tomlinson
$100 160 11/100ths May 2, 1930
2 tracts
140
a) 7 acres (lot #7 on map of sale of late Samuel Clunn's lands
as surveyed by Samuel Sheldon, c. E. in 1894
b) 160 11/100ths acres
1894. Clunn to Clunn. Liber 228, p. 295
wP.arles P. Clunn and William E. Clunn, (executors of Samuel Clunn's
will) to Anna and Elizabeth B. Clunn, 12/27/1894 -- 2 tracts for
$3,9901
a) 7 acres. Lot #7 on map of sale made in 1894. The rest of the
321 acres Samuel Clunn sold to Hampton (aka Mellor property)
b) 160 11/100 acres
1893 Clunn to Ed Hampton
Clunn sells his neighbor 1 8/10ths of an acre for $50. This may have
been an adjustment from the meadow company.
1843 Elmer to Clunn, Liber AX p. 300
Jonathan Elmer To Samuel Clunn, 8/19/1843,
321 acres, for $ 2,750.2
1 BEGINNING AT A POST BY THE SIDE OF MAURICE RIVER THE SAME BEING CORNER TO FORMERLY
JONATHAN GRAY'S, NOW JESSE ACKLEY'S LAND AND IS WHERE THE SCOTT'S LINE INTERSECTS
SAID RIVER AND RUNS FROM THENCE ALONG SAID SCOTT LINE AND BOUNDING ON JESSE C
ACKLEY'S LAND NORTH 66 DEGREES EAST 32 CHAINS AND 25 LINKS TO THE MIDDLE OF THE
ROAD LEADING FROM MILLVILLE TO PORT ELIZABETH
THENCE ALONG THE MIDDLE OF SAID ROAD NORTH 20 1/2 DEGREES WEST 40 CHAINS AND 89
LINKS TO A STONE CORNER TO FORMERLY HARRY HAMPTON'S , NOW EDWARD HAMPTON'S
LAND, THENCE BOUNDING ON HIS LAND SOUTH 68 DEGREES WEST 33 CHAINS TO A STAKE
CORNER TO U\ND CONVEYED BY THE SAID SAMUEL CLUNN DECEASED TO EDWARD P. HAMPTON
MARCH 8, 1893, THENCE STILL BOUNDING ON SAID HAMPTON'S LAND SOUTH 20 DEGREES AND
49 MINUTES EAST 8 CHAINS AND 35 LINKS TO A STAKE CORNER TO THE SAME, THENCE STILL
THEREBY SOUTH 66 1/2 DEGREES WEST 5 CHAINS AND 60 LINKS TO A STAKE AT THE TURN OF
A CREEK CALLED DIVISION CREEK. THENCE DOWN THE SAID CREEK THE SEVERAL COURSES AND
DISTANCES THEREOF STILL BOUNDING ON SAID HAMPTON'S LAND TO LOW WATER MARK ON
SAID MAURICE RIVER; THENCE DOWN SAID RIVER BOUNDING ON LOW WATER MARK THE SEVERAL
COURSES AND DISTANCES THEREOF TO WHERE SCOTT'S LINE INTERSECTA THE SAME THENCE
ALONG SAID LINE NORTH 66 DEGREES EAST TO THE PLACE OF BEGINNING CONTAINING 160
11/100THS ACRES.
(EXCEPT FOR ONE ACRE SAML CLUNN CONVEYED TO THE CITY OF MILLVILLE 9/10/1893)
THIS LAND IS PART OF THE PARCEL CLUNN BOUGHT FROM JONATHAN ELMER)
2 BEGINNING AT A POST BY THE SIDE OF MAURICE RIVER THE SAME BEING A CORNER OF
JONATHAN GRAY'S LAND, THENCE NORTH 64 DEGREES EAST 2 1/2 PERCHES TO A CORNER
THENCE NORTH 7 DEGREES WEST 180 PERCHES TO A CORNER, THENCE NORTH 30 1/2 DEGREES
WEST 70 PERCHES TO A CORNER, THENCE SOUTH 41 DEGREES WEST 128 1/2 PERCHES TO THE
PUBLIC ROAD LEADING FROM PORT ELIZABETH TO MILLVILLE THENCE SOUTH 22 1/2 DEGREES
EAST ALONG SAID ROAD 30 PERCHES, THENCE SOUTH 66 DEGREES WEST BY HENRY HAMPTON'S
LINE, 94 PERCHES TO A POST STILL BY SAID LINE, SOUTH 21 DEGREES EAST 33 1/2 PERCHES
TO A POST STILL BY HAMPTON'S LINE. SOUTH 64 1/2 DEGREES, WEST 1 6 PERCHES TO THE OLD
141
1843, Heirs of Randall Marshall to Jonathan Elmer
1829 Hance. lawyer for Priscilla Leaming. to Marshall
From John Hance, who is auctioning off Learning's land
To Randall Marshall Liber 52, p. 145
2 tracts, the 1st of which is the Price property, and crosses the Port
Elizabeth road, the second of which was the Leaming farm and is on
the water, both properties are a part of the leaming family meadow company^
these two tracts of land^ are the same two that priscilla leaming
purchased in 1824 that are recorded in book TT p 365
CREEK, THENCE DOWN SAID CREEK BOUNDING HAMPTON'S LINE THE SEVERAL COURSES THEREOF
TO MAURICE RIVER, THENCE DOWN THE SAID RIVER BINDING THE SEVERAL COURSES THEREOF TO
THE PLACE OF BEGINNING CONTAINING 321 ACRES ~ THE LEAMING FARM AND THE
PRICE LAND SO CALLED AND IS THE SAME FARM CONVEYED TO THE PARTY OF THE FIRST
PART BY THE HEIRS OF RANDALL MARSHALL JULY 17, 1843.
^The details of the Leaming Family meadow company agreement that were included in this deed,
can be found in chapter 2, sec 4 on Burcham area meadow companies.
^Ist property:
BEGINNING AT A POST FOR A CORNER IN RAWSON'S LINE BEARING NORTH 78 DEGREES WEST 1G
CHAINS FROM A WHITE OAK TREE, OLD MARKED TWELVE NOTCHES STANDING ON THE NORTH
WEST SIDE MENANTICO CREEK IN SAID RAWSON'S LINE THENCE BY SAID LINE NORTH 78
DEGREES WEST 22 CHAINS AND 50 LINKS TO A PINE TREE MARKED TWELVE NOTCHES AND
LETTERED D. P. STANDING BY THE SWAMP SIDE THENCE SOUTH 36 DEGREES WEST 43 CHAINS
AND 95 LINKS TO A GUM TREE MARKED 12 NOTCHES AND LETTERED L.P. THENCE SOUTH 78
DEGREES EAST 29 CHAINS AND 70 LINKS TO SCOTT'S LINE THENCE BOUNDING ON SAID SCOTT'S
LINE AND ON LAND BELONGING TO JOHN LANNING NORTH 65 DEGREES EAST 31 CHAINS 75 LINKS
TO A STAKE THENCE IN A STRAIGHT COURSE TO THE BEGINNING, CONTAINING 180 ACRES.
THE TRACT WAS PURCHASED BY WILLIAM LEAMING FROM DANIEL ELMER 3/12/1822
2nd property:
A PLANTATION SITUATE ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE MAURICE RIVER BEGINNING AT THE
PLACE WHERE SCOTTS LINE RUNS DOWN TO THE SAME CORNER OF
THENCE UP THE SAID RIVER BOUNDING THEREWITH NORTH SOMETHING WESTWARDLY AS SHOWN
ON THE COMMISSIONERS MAP OF DIVISIONS TO THE MOUTH OF DIVISION CREEK BEING ON A
STRAIGHT COURSE ABOUT 127 PERCHES
THENCE UP THE SEVERAL COURSES THEREOF NORTH MUCH EASTERLY (ON A STRAIGHT LINE)
ABOUT 48 PERCHES TO A STAKE AT A TURN OF THE SAME THENCE
NORTH 64 DEGREES, EAST 1 6 PERCHES TO A MARKED POST IN THE MEADOW
THENCE NORTH 21 DEGREES, WEST 331/2 PERCHES TO ANOTHER POST SET IN THE EDGE OF THE
UPLAND FOR A CORNER AT THE SOUTHEAST SIDE AND END OF A CAUSEWAY
THENCE NORTH 66 DEGREES EAST, 95 PERCHES TO A CORNER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD
LEADING FROM PORT ELIZABETH TO MILLVILLE
THENCE UP THE SAID ROAD ACROSS A BRANCH NORTH 22 DEGREES AND 30 MINUTES, WEST 34
PERCHES TO ANOTHER CORNER
THENCE NORTH 41 DEGREES EAST 128 1/2 PERCHES TO A STAKE CORNER IN A SWAMP WITH
WITNESSES (?)
(Note: all the lines NOT BOUNDED BY THE RIVER are bounded by phscilla leaming LOT 2 IN THE
map of the commissioner's DIVISION)
142
1824, Hance. (lawyer for Priscilla Learning's trust) to Priscilla
Learning. Liber TT p. 365.
From John Hance, Philadelphia lawyer To Priscilla Learning
From Sheriff at auction of William Leaming's land 6/14/1824
(presumably the auction was a way of dividing lands--
Priscilla and the other heirs inherited the property that she is
buying from Hance)
Priscilla bought 4 tracts of land:
Wm Leaming's will executed 15 jan 1824 assigned all his
property to Hance in trust for the benefit of his creditors -- Liber M,
p. 138 -- 4 tracts of land^
THENCE SOUTH 30 DEGREES AND 30 MINUTES EAST BY THAT WHICH IS CALLED GEORGE
BURGJN'S LINE, 20 PERCHES TO A STAKE CORNER FORMERLY OF WILLIAM PRICE
THENCE BY THOSE WHICH WAS HIS LINERS NORTH 79 DEGREES AND 30 MINUTES WEST 40
PERCHES TO A PINE CORNER LETTERED LP
THENCE SOUTH 34 DEGREES, WEST 1 64 PERCHES TO A GUM TREE
THENCE SOUTH 1 9 DEGREES AND 30 MINUTES, EAST 113 PERCHES TO A PINE LETTERED AS
AFORESAID STANDING IN THE SAID SCOTTS LINE AND THENCE
DOWN THE SAME SOUTH 64 DEGREES AND 30 MINUTES WEST 73 PERCHES TO THE SAID RIVER
AND BEGINNING CONTAINING 141 ACRES
(Note THIS IS lot#1 on the commissioners map of divisions
^ A) 108 acres that William Learning bougtit from Daniel Elmer 3/12/1822 (he
bought 180) This is one part of the Clunn property.
B) 141 acres is lot #1 on commissioners map of Divisions for the Leaming heirs. This is
another part of the Clunn farm.
THE SECOND IS A PLANTATION SITUATE ON THE EAST SIDE OF MAURICE RIVER:
BEGINNING AT THE PLACE WHERE SCOTTS LINE RUNS DOWN THE SAME, RUNNING THENCE 1 ) UP
THE SAID RIVER BOUNDING THEREWrm NORTH SOMETHING WESTERLY (AS SHOWN ON THE
COMMISSIONER'S MAP) TO THE MOUTH OF DIVISION CREEK BEING ON A STRAIGHT COURSE
ABOUT ONE HUNDRED AND 27 PERCHES, THENCE 2) UP THE SEVERAL COURSES THEREOF NORTH
MUCH EASTERLY (ON A STRAIGHT COURSE) ABOUGHT 48 PERCHES TO A STAKE AT A TURN OF
. ; iE SAME, THENCE 3) NORTH 64 DEGREES EAST, 16 PERCHES TO A MARKED POST IN THE
MEADOW; THENCE 4) NORTH 21 DEGREES, WEST THIRTY 33 1/2 PERCHES TO ANOTHER POST
SET IN THE EDGE OF THE UPLAND FOR A CORNER AT THE SOUTH EAST SIDE AND END OF A
COURSEWAY THENCE 5) NORTH 66 DEGREES EAST, 94 PERCHES TO A CORNER IN THE MIDDLE OF
THE ROAD LEADING FROM PORT ELIZABETH TO MILLVILLE THENCE 6) UP SAID ROAD ACROSS A
BRANCH (OR BANK) NORTH 22 DEGRES AND 30 MINUTES WEST 30 PERCHES TO ANOTHER
CORNER THENCE 7) NORTH 41 DEGREES EAST 128 1/2 PERCHES TO A STAKE CORNER IN A
SWAMP WITH ?wrrNESSES (NOTE ALL THE LINES SINCE LEAVING THE RIVER HAVE BEEN
BOUNDED BY #2 SET OFF TO PRISCILLA LEAMING BY THE COMMISSIONERS.) THENCE 8) SOUTH
30 DEGREES AND 30 MINUTES EAST (BY THAT WHICH IS CALLED GEORGE BURGIN'S LINE) 70
PERCHES TO A STAKE CORNER FORMERLY OF WILLIAM PRICE ; THENCE 9) BY THOSE WHICH WAS
HIS LINES NORTH 79 DEGREES AND 30 MINUTES WEST 40 PERCHES TO A PINE CORNER LETTERED
LP., THENCE 10) SOUTH 34 DEGREES WEST 164 PERCHES TO A GUM THENCE 11) SOUTH 19
DEGREES AND 30 MINUTES EAST, 1 13 PERCHES TO A PINE LETTERED AS AFORESAID STANDING
IN THE SAID SCOTTS LINE; AND THENCE 12) DOWN THE SAME SOUTH 64 DEGREES AND 30
143
1822. Elmer to Leamina. Liber 41 pp. 322-3
this is tiie first property, a, only.
Daniel EInner To William Leaming, 3/12/1822, 180 acres for
$1,056.87.6
1820. Lanning to Elmer. Liber 39 pp. 29-30
John Jr. and Judith Lanning to Daniel Elmer of Bridgeton
180 acres for $200. Nov 18, 1820.
BEGINNING AT A POST FOR A CORNER IN RAWSGN'S LINE BEARING NORTH 78 DEGREES
WEST, 16 CHAINS [1056 ft] FROM A WHITE OAK MARKED 12 NOTCHES STANDING ON THE
NORTHWEST SIDE OF MENANTICO CREEK IN SAID RAWSGN'S LINE FENCED BY SAID LINE NORTH
78 DEGREES WEST 22 CHAINS AND 50 LINKS [1485 ft] TO A PINE TREE MARKED 12 NOTCHES
AND LETTERED D.P. STANDING BY THE SWAMP SIDE THENCE, SOLTTH 26 DEGREES WEST 43
CHAINS AND 95 LINKS [2900.7 ft] TO A GUM TREE MARKED 12 NOTCHES AND LETTERED LP.
STANDING ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE SWAMP THENCE SOUTH 20 DEGREES EAST 29 CHAINS AND
70 LINKS [1960.2 ft] TO SCOTT'S LINE THENCE NORTH 55 DEGREES EAST BINDING ON SAID
SCOTT'S LINE 31 CHAINS 75 LINKS ? [2095.5 ft] THENCE ON A STRAIGHT COURSE TO THE
BEGINNING CONTAINING 180 ACRES BEING THE SAME TRACT OF LAND THE SAID JOHN LANNING
JR. PURCHASED OF PRESTON STRATTON AND WIFE BY DEED DATED THE 22ND DAY OF AUGUST
1820 REFERENCED THEREUNTO BEING HAD WILL MORE FULLY APPEAR.
1820. Stratton to Lanning
MINUTES WEST 73 PERCHES TO THE SAID RIVER AND BEGINNING CONTAINING 141 ACRES, AND
15 A TRACT MARKED #1 ON COMMISSIONERS MAP OF DIVISION.
C) 14 acres is lot 5, William Price's land that was set off to William Leaming by
Commissioners
THE THIRD TRACT IS A PARCEL OF WOODLAND AND SWAMP ON THE NORTH WEST SIDE
OF AND ADJOINING MENANTICO CREEK AND HAS ITS BEGINNING AT A WHITE TREE STANDING AT
THE HIGH WATER MARK OF SAID CREEK AND IS THE UPPER CORNER ON THE SAME OF JOHN
LANNING U\ND RUNNNING THENCE WrTH HIS LINE NORTH 41 DEGREES WEST 3 PERCHES TO A
STAKE STANDING ON A LANDING THENCE ALONG SAID LANNING'S LINE NORTH 30 DEGREES EAST
79 PERCHES TO A POST STANDING IN A LINE OF THE LAND FORMERLY BELONGING TO WILLIAM
PRICE; THENCE ALONG THE SAME SOUTH 55 DEGREES EAST 16 PERCHES TO THE SAID CREEK
AND THENCE DOWN SAID CREEK AND THENCE DOWN WmH THE SEVERAL COURSES AND
DISTACES OF THE SAME TO THE PLACE OF BEGINNING CONTAINING BY FORMER ESTIMATION 14
ACRES WHICH LOT IS MARKED #5 ON THE COMMISSIONERS MAP OF DIVISION AND WAS SET OFF
TO WILLIAM LEAMING BY THE COMMISSIONERS.
D) 7 1/4 acres is lot 6.
6 BEGINNING AT A POST FOR A CORNER IN RAWSON'S LINE. BEARING NORTH 78 DEGREES WEST,
16 CHAINS FROM A WHITE OAK TREE, OLD MARKED 12 NOTCHES STANDING ON THE NORTH
WEST SIDE OF MENANTICO CREEK IN SAID RAWSON'S LINE. THENCE BY SAID LINE NORTH 78
DEGREES WEST, 22 CHAINS AND 50 LINKS TO A PINE TREE MARKED 12 NOTCHES AND LETTERED
D.P. STANDING BY THE ? SWAMP SIDE THENCE SOUTH 36 DEGREES WEST 43 CHAINS AND 95
LINKS TO A GUM TREE MARKED 12 NOTCHES AND LETTERED L.P., THENCE SOUTH 20 DEGREES
EAST, 29 CHAINS AND 70 LINKS TO SCOTTS LINE THENCE BOUNDING ON SAID SCOTTS LINE
AND ON LAND BELONGING TO JOHN U\NNING NORTH 54 DEGREES EAST, 31 CHAINS 75 LINKS TO
A STAKE, THENCE ON A STRAIGHT COURSE TO THE BEGINNING, CONTAINING 180 ACRES
144
Israel Stratton to John Lanning Jr. on the 23rcl day of August 1820
for one dollar.
CONFIRM UNTO THE SAID PARTY OF THE 2ND PART, IN HIS ACTUAL POSSESSION NOW
BEING. . . BEGINNING AT A POST SET FOR A CORNER IN RAWSON'S UNE BEARING NORTH 78
DEGREES WEST 16 CHAINS FROM A WHITE OAK TREE OLD MARKED 12 NOTCHES
IN SAID RAWSON'S LINE AND THENCE BY SAID LINE NORTH 78 DEGREES WEST 22 CHAINS AND
50 LINKS
PRESTON STRATTON of Salem County to John Lanning, Jr. (owner of
adjacent property) of Cumberland County, August 22, 1820 for $200^
1818. Watson. Gurll and Stratton to Stratton.
r.opt 10, 1818, Sheriff's sale of Watson, Gurll and Israel Stratton
land : property bought by Preston Stratton
Jeremiah Buck to Israel Stratton, James Watson and William Gurll
1815 Griffith to Daniel Elmer and Jeremiah Buck
property on west side of Maurice near Buckshutem and a cedar
swamp -- 1800 acres from Cooper and 180 acres (will be Clunn
property) for $15,200. Elmer and Buck hold mortgage
1814. Price to Griffith. Liber 25. p 244
this is property a, above
William Price to William Griffith -- includes 180 acres 2nd
property, lot #1, June 6, 1814.
7 BEGINNING AT A POST FOR A CORNER IN RAWSON'S LINE BEARING NORTH SEVENTY EIGHT
DEGREES WEST SIXTEEN CHAINS FROM A WHrPE OAK TREE OLD MARKED TWELVE NOTCHES
STANDING ON THE NORTHWEST SIDE OF MENANTICO CREEK IN SAID RAWSON'S LINE AND THENCE
BY SAID LINE NORTH TWENTY-EIGHT (78 IN OTHER DEEDS)DEGREES WEST TWENTY-TWO
PERCHES (CHAINS IN OTHER DEEDS) AND FIFTY LINKS TO A PINE TREE MARKED TWELVE
NOTCHES AND LETTERED D.P. STANDING BY THE SWAMP SIDE AND THENCE SOLFTH 36 DEGREES
WEST 43 CHAINS AND 95 LINKS TO A GUM TREE MARKED 12 NOTCHES AND LETTERED LP.
o I ANDING ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE SWAMP THENCE SOUTH 20 DEGREES EAST 29 CHAINS AND
70 LINKS TO SCOrrS LINE THENCE NORTH 55 DEGREES EAST BINDING ON SAID SCOTTS LINE
31 CHAINS 75 LINKS THENCE ON A STRAIGHT COURSE TO THE BEGINNING CONTAINING 180
ACRES BEING THE SAME TRACT OF U\ND WHICH THE SAID PRESTON STRATTON PURCHASED AT
SHERIFFS SALE DEED DATED SEPTEMBER TENTH 1818 SOLD AS THE PROPERTY OF JAMES
WATSON, WILLIAM GURLL, AND ISRAEL STRATTON AND WHICH THE SAME PURCHASED OF
JEREMIAH BUCK AND WIFE.
THE SAID PREMISES ARE FREE AND CLEAR . . .FROM ALL FORMER MORTGAGES. . . AND FROM
ALL OTHER INCUMBERANCES WHATSOEVER EXCEPTING ONLY A MORTGAGE GIVEN BY
JEREMIAH BUCK AND DANIEL ELMER TO WILLIAM GRIFFITH
145
Between Wm Price of Millville and William Griffith, Esq of
Burlington for seven thousand dollars. ^
1783. Leaminc to Price. Liber 8 pp. 374-6
Jonathan and Parsons Learning To Captain Wm. Price
316 acres of 601 1/2 acres they inherited from their grandfather
Aaron Learning l|9. 474 pounds.
AARON LEAMING's two tracts, 601 1/2 acres:
1) 120 acres that he bought from LAWRENCE AND WILLIAM PETERSON DECEMBER 23. 1740
2) part of the 481 1/2 acres of land, swamp and cripple that he bought from THE COUNCIL OF
PROPRIETORS, by warrant dated NOVEMBER 3, 1737.0F LAND, SWAMP AND CRIPPPLE,
AND THE USUAL ALLOWANCE FOR HIGHWAYS. . . .^0
8 BEGINNING AT A POST FOR A CORNER IN RAWSON'S LINE BEING NORTH 75 DEGREES AND 16
CHAINS FROM A WHITE OAK TREE OLD MARKED 12 NOTCHES STANDING ON THE NORTH WEST
SIDE OF MENANTICO CREEK IN SAID RAWSON'S LINE THENCE BY SAID LINE NORTH 78 DEGREES
WEST 22 CHAINS AND 50 LINKS TO A PiNE TREE MARKED 12 NOTCHES AND LETTERED LP
STANDING IN THE SWAMP SIDE THENCE SOUTH 36 DEGREES WEST 53 CHAINS AND 95 LINKS TO
A GUM TREE MARKED 12 NOTCHES AND LETTERED LP STANDING ON THE EAST SIDE OF A
'^' VAMP THENCE SOUTH 20 DEGREES EAST 29 CHAINS AND 7 LINKS TO SCOTTS LINE THENCE
NORTH 65 DEGREES EAST BINDING ON SAID SCOTTS LINE 31 CHAINS AND 75 LINKS THENCE ON
A STRAIGHT LINE TO THE BEGINNING WITHIN WHICH BOUNDS IS CONTAINED 180 ACRES BE
THEY THE SAME MORE OR LESS BEING PART OF A TRACT WHICH THE SAID WM PRICE
PURCHASED OF JONATHAN AND PARSONS LEAMING AS WITNESSES DEED DATE
21 MARCH 1783 AND RECORDED IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY AUGUST
19, 1805 IN BOOK 8 OF DEEDS P 374-6.
^Aaron Learning II left both of these properties to his sons Aaron and Jeremiah. Jeremiah
willed his part to his brother Aaron, who willed both parts to his sons, Jonathan and Parsons
Leaming.
10 TRACT OF LAND, SWAMP AND CRIPPLE . . . UPON BOTH SIDES OF MENANTICO CREEK,
AND ON THE NORTHEAST OF PRINCE MORRIS' RIVER . . BEGINNING AT A WHITE
OAK TREE, OLD MARKED TWELVE NOTCHES, STANDING ON THE NORTH WEST SIDE
OF MENA^^■|CO CREEK IN WILLLIAM RAWSON'S LINE, AND RUNNING FROM THE SAID
TREE ALONG WILLLIAM RAWSON'S LINE NORTH 78 DEGREES WEST 35 CHAINS TO A PINE TREE
MARKED 12 NOTCHES AND LP. STANDING BY A SWAMP SIDE THEN SOUTH 36 DEGREES WEST
40 CHAINS AND 45 LINKS BY A LINE OF TREES NEWLY MARKED TO A GUM TREE MARKED 12
NOTCHES AND LP. STANDING BY THE EAST SIDE OF A SWAMP; THEN SOUTH 20 DEGREES EAST
26 CHAINS AND 82 LINKS TO A PINE MARKED12 NOTCHES AND L.S.P. STANDING IN SCOTTS
UNE; THEN BOUNDING BY THE SAME NORTH 65 DEGREES EAST ONE HUNDRED AND TWO CHAINS
AND FIFTY LINKS TO A PINE IN THE SAID SCOTTS LINE NEWLY MARKED 12 NOTCHES. STANDING
ON THE NORTHEAST SIDE OF MENANTICO CREEK AND CROSSING THE SAID CREEK ON THIS LAST
MEfvn-IONED COURSE; THEN NORTH 19 DEGREES WEST BY A LINE OF TREES NEWLY MARKED 26
CHAINS AND 50 LINKS TO A PINE AND OAK, EACH MARKED 12 NOTCHES, THEN NORTH 88
DEGREES, WEST 75 CHAINS TO A STAKE STANDING BY THE SIDE OF MENANTICO CREK ON THE
EAST SIDE THEREOF, THEN BOUNDING DOWN BY THE SAID CREEK THE SEVERAL COURSES
THEREOF1 7 CHAINS THENCE ON A STRAIGHT COURSE TO THE FIRST PLACE OF BEGINNING WHUIN
WHICH BOUNDS IS CONTAINED 316 ACRES.
146
June 2. 1741.11 Peterson to Learning
Peter Peterson's sawmill and 600 acres of land cried off to Aaron
Learning for 13 pounds, 2.6.
1740. Peterson to Leaminc
Lawrence and William Peterson to Aaron Learning 120 acres
(presumably this was a part of the estate of Peter Peterson),
12/23/1740.
1733. to Peterson, Book One
Peter Peterson bought a sawmill, 600 acres belonging to the mill
and 320 acres on Dividing Creek for 25 pounds. 4/28/1733
^ ^ Abstracts of Salem County Loan Office records that appeared in the Genealogical Magazine
of New Jersey, 54:121,125, (1979).
147
Appendix IV-- Meadow Company Agreements
Millville Meadow Company. 1819
WE THE COMMISSIONERS APPOir^ED BY . . . THE JUDGES OF THE INFERIOR COURT OF
COMMON PLEAS IN . . . CUMBERU\ND ... TO LAY OFF THE BANK AND WATER COURSES ON A
CERTAIN BODY OF MEADOW SITUATE IN THE TOWNSHIP OF MILLVILLE BELONGING TO JOSHUA
BRICK, DANIEL CARRALL AND OTHERS. . . WE HAVE PROCEEDED TO VALUE AND LAY OFF THE
SAME WITH THE WATER COURSES IN THE MANNER FOLLOWING, VIZ
BEGINNING AT A PINE TREE STANDING IN SCOTTS LINE, AND OF THE BANK
THROWN BY THE LONGSTAFFS, ON THE EDGE OF THE UPLAND BEING ALSO A CORNER OF
JOHN LANNING'S CRIPPLE. THENCE DOWN THE SHORE BANK AS ORIGINALLY THROWN TO
THE BANK ON THE RIVER, THENCE UP THE RIVER MEASURING THE BANK AS IT NOW RUNS 91
RODS AND 5 LINKS TO A SLUICE WHICH WE ORDER TO BE COMTINUED WHERE IT NOW LIES THENCE
CONTINUED THE BANK IN ALL 200 RODS FROM THE BEGINNING TO A WILLOW MARKED 1 NOTCH
AND LETTERED ? ABOVE AND P BELOW WHICH SAID 200 RODS AND SLUICE LAY OFF TO BE
MAINTAINED BY THE MEADOW BELONGING TO WILLIAM LANNING.
SECONDLY, WE lay off to the meadow belonging to PRISCILLA LEAMING 180
RODS NEXT UP THE RIVER,
BEGINNING AT THE SAID WILLOW MARKED ? THENCE UP THE RIVER AS THE BANK WAS
ORIGINALLY THROWN 180 RODS TO A WILLOW MARKED II AND P ABOVE AND P BELOW WITH ONE
SLUICE WHERE IT NOW LAYS IN SAID BANK TO BE MAINTAINED BY THE MEADOW BELONGING TO
SAID PRISCILLA LEAMING,
THIRDLY TO THE MEADOW BELONGING TO PARSONS LEAMING, WE LAY OFF AS
FOLLOWS
BEGINNING AT THE SAID WILLOW BEING THE UPPER END OF PRISCILLA LEAMING'S BANK.
THENCE UP THE RIVER AS THE SAID BANK WAS ORIGINALLY THROWN 170 RODS TO A STAKE 3
RODS AND 6 LINKS BELOW A CHERRY TREE MARKED H ABOUT THREE FEET UP AND ON THE
INSIDE OF THE BANK AND ONE SLUICE WHERE IT NOW IS IN THE BANK AT OR NEAR BRICK AND
CARRALL'S LINE THE UPPER SLUICE IN THE ABOVE MENTIONED BANK 170 RODS OF BANK AND
SLUICE WE ORDER TO BE MAINTAINED BY THE MEADOW BELONGING TO SAID PARSON'S LEAMING
FOURTHLY,
THE REMAINDER OF THE BANK UP TO BUDD'S LINE BEING 1 10 RODS , WE LAY OFF TO
THE MEADOW BELONGING TO SAID JOSHUA BRICK AND DANIEL CARRALL WITH ONE SLUICE TO
BE LAID IN THE BANK 70 RODS DOWN THE RIVER BELOW BUDD'S LINE TO WHICH PLACE WE
ORDER THE SLUICE ALREADY IN THE BANK TO BE MOVED. THE ABOVE 1 1 0 RODS AND SLUICE WE
ORDER TO BE MAINTAINED AND KEPT UP BY THE MEADOWS BELONGING TO SAID BRICK AND
CARRALL
FIFTHLY,
THE BANK FROM THE RIVER TO THE SHORE ON BUDD'S LINE ADJOINING ON BRICK AND
CARRALL, WE ORDER THROWN OR MADE AND MAINTAINED AT THE JOINT EXPENSE OF ALL THE
SAID FOUR FARMERS OF MEADOW EACH ONE TO PAY AN EQUAL PROPORTION OF SAID EXPENSE
WHENEVER THE MANAGERS FOR THE TIME BEING MAY THINK THE SAME NECESSARY TO BE
DONE
SIXTHLY WE ORDER THAT THE SAID COMPANY BE CALLED AND KNOWN BY THE NAME
OF THE MILLVILLE MEADOW COMPANY
14TH JUNE 1819
ISAAC TOWNSEND, LEWIS MULFORD, JOHN LANNING JR.
148
Leamina Family Meadow Company. 1828
in MISCELLANEOUS DEED BOOK, D, p. 154.
THESE PROPERTIES ARE SUBJECT TO A FIVE YEAR LEASE IN FAVOR OF JAMES WELSH, THE
PRESENT OCCUPIER OF SAID FARM
A MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT ENTERED INTO THE 12TH DAY OF JUNE 1828 BY
JEREMIAH LEAMING, AARON LEAMING, ROBERT M. HOLMES. AND SARAH LEAMING FOR THE
HEIRS OF JONATHAN LEAMING AND FURMAN LEAMING, DANIEL HOLLINSHEAD, HUGH
HOLLINSHEAD AND PRISCILLA LEAMING RECORDED OCTOBER 8, 1828 IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF
CUMBERLAND COUNTY IN BOOK D p. 154
In 1826, the owners of the dyked "Longstaff" farms were:
1) Joseph, Daniel and Hugh Hollinshed
2) the heirs of Parsons Learning, deceased, Jeremiah, Aaron, and Sarah Learning (widow, for
the heirs of James R. Leaming), all of Cape May County, and Furman Leaming of Philadelphia
3) Priscilla Leaming of Philadelphia
4)"
The survey of the meadow company farms:
Beginning upriver, the survey began at a leaning maple on the Hollinshed property, and
extended 165 1/2 rods down the river to the line between it and the farm now occupied by
Elias Wilson.
The second farm, the one now occupied by Elias Wilson, continued another 165 1/2 rods
down the Maurice. It was owned by the heirs of Parsons Leaming.^ It began at a willow ten
rods below the mouth of Otter Gut and ran along the bank 165 1/2 rods to a leaning maple on
the outer edge of the bank that was marked 12 notches and 4 blazes.
Priscilla Leaming, a minor in Philadelphia, was the owner of the two lower farms. She
was required to keep banked the following marshland, which began at the line her property
shared with John Lanning's. (the Gricco property)
BEGINNING AT A CEDAR POST OR STAKE MARKED 12 NOTCHES STANDING ON THE TOWN
END OF THE BANK AT THE FAST L^ND ON OR NEAR THE LINE BETWEEN JOHN U\NNING AND
PRISCILLA LEAMING'S LAND AND FROM THENCE ALONG THE SEVERAL COURSES OF THE BANK
331 RODS TO A CROTCHED WILLOW MARKED THREE NOTCHES AND A BU\ZE WITH THE LETTERS
PHL IN THE UPPER AND PL ON THE LOWER SIDE STANDING ON THE OUTER PART OF SAID BANK
1 1 RODS FROM THE EDGE OF PRISCILA LEAMING'S MEADOW AND 1 0 RODS BELOW THE MOUTH OF
OTTER GUT CREEK
^ His heirs were Robert Holmes, Furman Leaming and Sarah Leaming (for the heirs of James R.
Leaming).
149
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Fola Bevan, Cumberland County Historical Society
Janice and Jeanette Burcham
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Jane Galetto, Citizen's United for the Protection of the Maurice
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Richard and Joanne Wetherby of Millville
William Wetherby of Millville
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Mary Samano Wheaton
159
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