Soldiers from Wenonah invade Mantua Township

Well, not really. But 107 years ago this week the determined troops of the Camden-based Battery B of the New Jersey National Guard's field artillery built a bridge from Wenonah into Sewell. They were intent creating a shortcut to their pistol range, which was on the other side of Mantua Creek in our township. 

The troops were tired of taking their horse-drawn wagonfuls of supplies to the range the long way around: across the Wenonah Avenue bridge to downtown Mantua; a hard left at the Mantua School onto Mantua Boulevard (the McCarthy Avenue cutoff was not yet in place); down to and over the bridge at Chestnut Branch; and from there to their destination on the Sewell side of Mantua creek.

Oregon Daily Journal article courtesy of Newspapers.com

Why would a Camden-based artillery unit care so much about the route from Wenonah to a gun range in Sewell? Two factors came into play: First, Battery B was at this point homeless. Three years prior its armory had been destroyed in a horrible fire. Second, while most of its officers lived in and around Camden, its captain Samuel Barnard lived on Cherry Street in Wenonah. 

Captain Barnard seems to have found a temporary spot for his battery's equipment in his hometown. Since his men could easily reach Wenonah from Camden via the West Jersey Railroad, creating a training location nearby would have made sense.  

In 1910, the year after they built the bridge, Battery B was given $100,000 to buy land to build and furnish a new armory in Camden, complete with "the necessary stables and range or ranges suitable for revolver and sub-calibre artillery practice."* Before long, the group was once again meeting in Camden and Captain Barnard was the one taking the train. The new armory was on Wright Avenue, near the current Mickle Street exit from 676, in a building that in the 1970s housed Camden's Department of Public Works.

What happened to the bridge? It does not seem to have survived the departure of the field artillery. Where was it located? My guess is it was somewhere in the area highlighted in yellow on the 1901 topographic map below. Any further upstream would have required bridging Monongahela Brook as well as Mantua Creek. Much further downstream the creek would have been too wide for such a bridge.

1901 map courtesy of the United States Geological Survey

It's been quite a while since Battery B went back over the border. If anyone reading this post has any clues about this short-lived bridge, or the location of the one-time gun range to which the bridge led, please let us know. I am curious!

Come visit the Museum this Saturday, July 2nd. We'll be open from 10 AM to 12 Noon.

*Compiled Statutes of New Jersey, Volume III, p 3393 - Newark, NJ, Soney & Sage, 1911. Available on Google Books.

A Historic Business Opportunity

Two-hundred forty-four years ago this week an advertisement ran in the Pennsylvania Gazette for a large parcel of prime land in our community. A look at the notice shows how much things have changed around here since that long-ago day:

Image courtesy of Newspapers.com

Some contrasts with today are obvious. We no longer live in "the western division of the province of New Jersey." And 1,000 acre plus parcels of land are no longer to be had in our area at any price. And our township broke off from Greenwich over 150 years ago. But other differences are more subtle. For example, Chestnut Branch flows today through woods of tulip poplar; pine trees have become somewhat rare.

The tract for sale may have included part of today's communities of Sewell and Barnsboro. It is unclear who purchased the land, or even if a sale did take place. It may have been bought by the Chew family and become part of their large holdings along Chestnut Branch. One clue to its location it that the "almost new" sawmill offered with the property was almost certainly located at what we today call Tyler's Mill. The only road of consequence through our area in those days passed this mill where it crossed Chestnut Branch. 

The road took the path of our Main Street, leading northwest from the sawmill past the Barnsboro Inn as it does today. As it left the settlement of Barnsboro it followed the track of the Mount Royal Road. There was no Carpenter's Landing (Mantua) yet, so there was no road leading in that direction. The landing described in the ad was probably at Mount Royal. This would have been, as the notice says, about a five mile trip. This was a selling point, because access to the thriving Philadelphia market was the key to success for an aspiring local sawmill operator. 

Five miles seems a short distance to us today, but hauling lumber overland in the late 1700s was an onerous task. One of the driving reasons for the establishment of Carpenter's Landing was likely a desire to shorten the trip from the sawmill to navigable water. As the community developed, additional sawmills were built on the Chestnut Branch: one at Alcyon Lake, another where the creek passes under Center Street Sewell. And a large sawmill operation on Mantua Creek was built at Carpenter's Landing itself.

So, where did the pine forest go? Through the sawmills, onto ox-carts, up through Barnsboro to the landing at Mount Royal (or Mantua, later) in rafts or boats to the Delaware River, on to the city market, then into ships for export to markets across the ocean. And, as it grew, into the homes and buildings of Philadelphia itself. 

Perhaps you know of a stand or two of pines in the woods near your house...not the scrub trees of the Pine Barrens, but the lofty white pines that once covered much of our township. The next time you visit, take a moment to look up and breathe in and try to picture the long-ago woods of the west division of New Jersey province.


Interested in learning more about Mantua Township's past? Do you have information about the property described for sale in the advertisement featured today? We would love to share. Come visit our museum from 10 AM to 12 Noon on first and third Saturdays of the month, or the first Thursday evening of the month from 7 to 8 PM. You can also message us to arrange a special off-hours tour.

Disaster Averted

Plenty of rain fell in Mantua Township 120 years ago this week. This did not deter vacationers from enjoying the amusement park at Alcyon Lake. The beginning of summer meant crowds eager to swim, boat, ride the log flume, or otherwise attempt to beat the heat. The lake, larger than ever behind a new dam built by the park's owners, was invitingly cool.

The park had grown up around the Pitman Grove, in those days part of Mantua Township still. The Grove was a popular religious camp meeting; a place for people to come and renew (or find) their faith away from the heat and bustle of the city. Founded over twenty years before, the Grove had grown rapidly, for two key reasons: a new railroad, which made it convenient for Philadelphians to participate, and Alcyon Lake, which provided an important water supply.

The lake which attracted the camp meeting which in turn attracted the amusement park was the result of a dam built across a creek years before to power a sawmill. The creek was the Chestnut Branch--the same creek that gives its name to our township's park these days. Over the spillway of the dam at Alcyon Lake it flowed, as it still does, under Lambs Road near today's Total Turf facilities. It passed among the disused marl pits through what is now Ceres Park, then under a bridge at the Barnsboro-Glassboro turnpike--our Barnsboro's Main Street. Here the creek powered a sawmill owned by George Tyler before passing under what we call today Tylers Mill Road.

Chestnut Branch goes on through Sewell and joins the Mantua Creek in Mantua, but the part of the creek described above is the setting for a dramatic story from a dozen decades past in which foresight on the part of a few saved lives and prevented an accident from turning into a tragedy.

Early in the morning of the 19th two local farmhands were examining the new dam at Alcyon. They were concerned that all the recent rain might cause trouble with the structure. What they found alarmed them: the face of the dam was bulging outward. Quickly they sounded the alarm, warning people away from the immediate area. Their thoughts turned downstream, mentally tracing a potential path of destruction. Nobody lived in the floodplain of the creek, but the workers at Tyler's sawmill would be at work already, and certainly in harm's way.

Philadelphia Times article courtesy of
Newspapers.com

Mounting horses, the two galloped toward Tyler's mill. They likely followed Lambs Road up to the corner where the Pitman Methodist Church now stands, then raced up the muddy turnpike toward Barnsboro. They arrived in time to warn the handful of mill workers. One of the workers opened the sluice gates to allow the flood waters to flow through when they came, and they all sought shelter on higher ground.

Back at the lake, the dam had already given way. A roaring wall of water ten feet high was unleashed. The noise of it carried for miles. The flood destroyed three bridges, and caused major damage at the amusement park as attractions, piers, etc. were sucked down the lake and ruined. But it could have been much worse. Nobody was killed. In fact, no one was even injured. The floodwaters spread out after Tyler's mill and did no damage further downstream. 

My hat goes off to the two unnamed Mantua Township heroes who had the wit to recognize a dangerous situation and took the initiative to act.

1901 Topographic map courtesy of US Geological Survey

If you want to know more about this story, or if you know anything that can help us identify the two heroes, please come visit the Museum or leave us a message. We will be open this Saturday from 10 AM until Noon.

Mantua Grammar School Class of '31

Eighty-five years ago this week the year was drawing to a close at the Mantua School. Twenty-three of Mantua's finest youth readied themselves for 8th grade graduation, which took place June 9th at the Methodist chapel. Their names are listed below the photo.

Row 1 (l-r): Helen Geiger; Beulah Hillman; Beatrice Thurlsin; Dorothy Sharp; Edna Jones; Beverly Reese; Louise Carbone; Doris Foster. 
Row 2: Unknown; Bill DeCesari; Margaret Roy; Gertrude Pope; Tillie Mueller; Margaret ?; Bernard Gallagher. 
Row 3: Lester Bates; Henry Staubach; Unknown; Winfield Smith; Lewis Bailey; Robert Harris; James Mulvenna; Morris Haslett. 

In a way, this generation was riding the crest of an educational wave. Most already had as much formal education as their parents would ever have. But by 1931 in New Jersey, the law requiring children aged 6 through 16 (which had existed for decades) to attend school was starting to be enforced. Most of these teens would enter Pitman High School in the fall. 

An accomplishment of this type called for recognition. Below is one of the impressive diplomas handed out on that long-ago day. It belonged to Morris Raymond Haslett, the last boy on the right in the last row.

  

Morris had been born in Philadelphia in 1917, but when he was still a baby his parents Raymond and Margaret bought a home in Mantua Heights on what would later become West Elm Avenue. Neither Raymond (a house painter) nor Margaret had studied beyond 8th grade. 

Morris would go on to complete high school. He became a plumber, volunteer fireman, and served in a Coast Guard air crew during World War II. He married, raised a family, and lived a long, useful life in Mantua. He passed in 2003 and is buried in Eglington Cemetery. 

If you're interesting in learning more about the 8th grade class of '31, Mantua Township school history, or anything about our community's past, come visit the museum June 18th between 10 AM and Noon.