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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
BATSTO, 11.8 miles (30 alt.), a small community of frame houses almost
exactly alike, is entirely surrounded by dense forest. Built originally to
house workers on the Wharton estate, one of the largest in New Jersey.
the homes are now occupied chiefly by wood-cutters and other members
of South Jersey's forest people.
The town is situated at the foot of a millpond (R) formed by damming
the Batsto River. The SITE OF BATSTO IRON WORKS, built in 1765 by
Charles Read, is marked by a heap of slag near the dam. Munitions were
made here for American forces during the Revolutionary War and the
War of 1812. The forge also made the steam cylinder for John Fitch's
steamboat, Perseverance (see TRENTON), Dutch ovens, fish kettles, salt-
evaporating pans, and other iron products.
Northwest of Batsto, in the area between Mullica River and its tribu-
tary, Batsto River, is the heart of the Jersey Pines, a deep scrub forest
threaded by occasional trails and a few wretched roads, unmarked and not
safe for automobile travel except in dry weather. The inhabitants are called
the Pineys.
Conditions have changed somewhat in the 26 years that have passed
since 1913, when Elizabeth S. Kite of the Vineland Training School
startled people by her careful report in The Survey on the social problems
created by the presence of this group of segregated, inbred people. The
construction of roads through the Pines has broken down some of the
barriers between the Pineys and the people around them. But no one
knows how many tiny hovels built of cast-off cranberry boxes and miscellaneous lumber still remain in the recesses of the pine forest. And no one
knows exactly how many Pineys still live in the squalor of these shacks,
though it is believed that there are somewhat fewer than 5,000.
Though the origin of the group is a matter of speculation, Miss Kite
said that some of the ancestors of these people deserted their Colonial
villages for a forest life as a protest against rigid religious rules. This nucleus was augmented by Tory renegades and deserters from the British
army during the Revolution. Further additions were the "Pine Robbers,"
outlaws whose "cruelty and lust" terrorized the countryside, according to
Francis B. Lee's history of the State. From time to time young men of
leisure, criminals and adventurers were attracted to the unsupervised wasteland. Revelers and members of hunting parties are said to have left nameless offspring here, and impoverished immigrants, driven from the towns
by severe poor laws, added their seed to the heterogeneous stock.
Miss Kite reported that disease was rampant in the large families, and
legal marriage was practically unknown. A woman kept house for a man,
bore his children and was known as "John No. 1, John No. 2, or John
No. 3," depending on whether she was the first, second, or third woman
to live with John: she was free to leave and attach herself to another man
when she chose.
The Pineys gain some income by cutting timber, and by gathering sphagnum moss, cranberries, and huckleberries. Many have vegetable gardens
and some keep pigs, chickens, and a cow. While many of those cared for
in the Vineland Training School, or brought under public supervision
when they have wandered to the cities in search of work, are mentally sub-normal, others have shown acute intelligence in their own limited world.
Some people who have approached them with sympathy, asking their co-operation, refute the charges of widespread degeneracy and moronism and
attribute the poor impression they make in part to shyness and to ignorance
of the more complicated world around them.
Ellis H. Parker, the former Burlington County detective who came to
know them in the course of his official duties, staunchly defends them and
tells many delightful stories of his experiences among them. Parker once
asked their help in discovering the body of a murdered man, which he
believed had been buried in the sandy soil of the scrub forest. The searching party hiked deep into the barrens, their eyes scanning the branches of
the trees overhead. They paid no attention to Parker's insistence that they
examine the ground. Suddenly they stopped. "If the body is anywhere in
this part of the woods," one said, "it is around this tree." The body was
there. Questioned, the men explained to the detective that the leaves of a
tree curl when the roots are disturbed.
Parker says that the Pineys are "the most law-abiding citizens of the
State." But ignorance of the present-day world often leads them to action
that seems to refute this. A staff correspondent of the Newark Evening
News reported that U. S. Navy blimps must be careful in their flights over
the area. The Piney bootleggers, suspecting that the low-flying blimps are
seeking illicit stills, are quick on the trigger; frequently the small dirigibles return to Lakehurst from training flights with bullet holes in the
fabric.
The establishment of Camp Dix nearby during the World War brought
the modern world close to the Pineys for a time. Some of them for the first
time learned the use of money when they worked as laborers at Camp Dix.
These laborers and some of their friends were then attracted to urban centers, where they have intensified social problems. The shier and less com-
petent and aggressive Pineys have withdrawn deeper into the forests.
At Batsto the route bears L., entering pine woods and crossing Mullica
River.
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