Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey - by Henry Beck (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Composed, for the most part, from sketches that were published in the Courier-Post newspapers of Camden, New Jersey, Beck provides us with a series of stories of towns too tiny or uncertain for today's maps. Together, these sketches help to create a more complete picture of the history of New Jersey. A connecting skein of untold or little known wartime history--the Revolution, the War of 1812, and the conflict of North against South--runs through most of the sketches. Many of the sketches concern the pine towns and their people, "the pineys" who lived in the Jersey pine barrens.

From the Back Cover

The writing and revision of the stories which appear in this book represent the accurate chronicle of part of a most unusual and fascinating adventure. It began when the foreman of a newspaper composing-room, always ready with ideas form making busy people busier, proposed that an honest effort should be made to locate the town still indicated on maps of New Jersey by the mysterious name of Ong's Hat.

Review Quotes

"Villages have disappeared even from the maps, the vestiges described by Beck having been obliterated by the bulldozer or the attrition of time. Only this book remains, a labor of love, to tell their stories."-- "--Chicago Tribune"

About the Author

Father Henry Charlton Beck, who lived in New Jersey nearly all his life, was the author of numerous books on New Jersey folk life, state editor of the Camden Courier-Post and writer for the Newark Star-Ledger. He is considered New Jersey's first folklorist and his painstaking work has left us with a rich collection of tales.