Tell about your home town history.

My home town is Mount Holly, New Jersey. There are several rounded hills, like huge bumps, that rise suddenly up out of the relatively flat, sandy coastal plain of mid to south New Jersey. There are Mt. Holly, Mt. Laurel, and Arney's Mount to name the most prominent ones.

The town of Mt. Holly lies mainly on the north side of the Rancocas Creek, between the creek and the mount. I suppose there were once a lot of holly trees on the mount, but today it is mostly covered with oak, maple, and hickory.

My direct ancestor, Walter Reeves, was the first white man to settle at the present town site. Walter established a "plantation" there beside the creek in the 1680's. It is uncertain whether he came there directly from England, or whether he spent some time on what is now called Long Island, New York before moving to the West Jersey Colony. It is known that he shipped beef, cheese, and grain to Barbados in the Caribbean.
As other people settled in the area Walter had a lot of trouble with property boundary disputes.

During the American Revolution there was a Hessian garrison stationed in Mt. Holly. In order to keep them from going up to reinforce Trenton when General Washington attacked that town, the local county militia engaged the Hessians in Mt. Holly in a cannon duel. The Americans set up on a hill south of the Rancocas Creek and exchanged cannon fire with the Hessians who had set up a battery on the Mt. Holly mount. Cannon balls flew over the rooftops of the town. There are old, brick homes in Mt. Holly today that have solid iron cannon balls imbedded in the walls.
After delaying the Hessians for a couple of days the American militia spiked their two cannons and pushed them down the hill and into the creek. Then they retreated westward.
Those cannon were recovered from the dark waters sometime in the early 1900's.
When I was a boy, swimming in the creek with some friends, one boy pulled a badly rusted musket barrel out of the mud. The lock was still attached, but the stock had all rotted away long ago.

During the American War Between The States, another of my direct ancestors, Samuel Gale, a stone and brick mason, formed a company of Mt. Holly volunteers when President Lincoln called for volunteers to go and defend Washington D.C. in early 1861.
But that is another story. ():~)

So, lets hear about your home towns.

I was born and lived my childhood in Athens Ga. the location of UGA. But most of my adult life was spent in the very rural county next door where I started off as only the 3rd county forest ranger ever and I'm listed in the history books of that county as such. That county was just about right on the "fall line". The "fall line" is where the coastal plain begins and the piedmont ends. That location caused the area to have vegetation from both areas as well as "some" from the mountains. That one county is one of the very, very few locations where the rare "Oglethorpe Oak" is found. There were a few others that I uncovered myself. It is a spectacular deer hunting Mecca and has attracted a number of celebrity hunters (Slim Pickens, a favorite of mine was one). Very heavily populated with canebrake & pygmy rattlers, copperheads, cottonmouths and many harmless snakes. Also represented are coyotes, armadillos, turkey, squirrels, hogs and (the most dangerous of all) feral dog packs and more.

Lightly populated, at least when I lived there, but full of rednecks so one DID NOT joke about or insult someone's dog lest a violent confrontation ensue. Wives are fair game but not dogs. Canebrakes and feral dogs did kill a few folks in my years down there. Bears were seen on occasion mostly wandering through from the mountains and they were harmless. There WAS at least one major gold mine in the NE part of the county, closed since possibly the 1950s, and from time to time a few folks from the city would pan the streams for gold. I played music with a few bands back in my teens and this included a country band that had a regular gig at a popular dive. The sheriff looked the other way and we (teens) got served free drinks. As long as we could "hit the floor" quickly, the rare gunshots presented no real problem for us.

But in Athens where I grew up things are not the same. When I was a kid we lived on the outskirts which was "country". Neighbors raised hogs, goats, chickens, cows and we had chickens early on. I was raised by my maternal grandmother. We were poor, "ignernt" (a Southern term) and were happy. No car and we walked everywhere unless my uncle drove us. Athens was a small, quaint and pleasant town back then and UGA was still relatively small. But this was 60 to 75 years ago. My young friends and I were perfectly safe walking into town in the dark - just try that now. But the US population has nearly tripled since then and the town now is an entire, urban county!

I don't miss Athens but I do miss my friends, students and cousins. Still I have very, very pleasant memories of the place that it's unbridled growth hasn't diminished.

I'm not sure I have what could be called a "hometown". I'm a Navy brat that was born in San Diego, Ca. I spent my young days moving from port to port where my Dads' ship was based. All on the West Coast. When he retired we settled in The Bay Area South of San Jose where I finished growing up.
As for family history, both my Mom and my Dads' families are from New England. I like to say that some of my ancestors came over on the Mayflower, some greeted them when they got here, and some have wandered over since. Some of my ancestors were involved in the Revolutionary War (John Adams and his clan). I'm not clear on what involvement my ancestors had in the War Between the States but I'm fairly sure they were in it up to their eyeballs.

Good start. I hope more chime in with their home town stories.

Hanshi; We, also, had a feral dog problem in the south Jersey "Pine Barrens". Also, the "red necks" of the New Jersey Pine Barrens are called "Pineys". They definitely are a breed apart.
Like your Athens, my Mt. Holly has grown. Much of my old stomping grounds are now covered in housing projects and industrial parks.
Back in colonial times Mt. Holly and the surrounding county was mainly populated with Quakers. Most of my ancestors of that time were Quakers.

Boartooth; I had two ancestors on the Mayflower, Stephen Hopkins and his daughter Constance. Constance was only 14 during the Atlantic crossing in 1620. She eventually married Nicolas Snow. Nicolas was a later arrival. He came on the ship "Ann", arriving in Plymouth Colony in 1623.
I have in-laws out there on the west coast in CA., and also OR. We've been out there to visit them.

Okay, lets see some more home town histories.

Rancocas, the only ancestor I have been told about that came on The Mayflower was William Bradford. If there were others, I haven't been told about them.

If any of mine came over on the Mayflower they came over in the brig. They likely stretched more ropes than most, too.

I grew up in northeastern New Jersey. The town was North Bergen, the county, Hudson, was settled by the Dutch. the part that I lived in was the back side if the Palisades. Remember Freddy Cannon singing Palisades Park? Went there many times. Only God knows how many times we walked up and down those hills. After San Francisco North Bergen has the steepest hill in the US. In grammar school we had a trap line that was about 5 miles from Times Square.What is now known as the Meadowlands was known as swamps. They were loaded with mosquitoes, muskrats,rabbits, and al kinds of waterfowl.There were geese, ducks, railbirds, and snipe.The usual amount of racoons,and skunks. Plenty of Norway rats whicch were always in season.The state used to stock Jersey City, Secaucus, and North Bergen with pheasants. We use to hunt pheasants where Giants Stadium is, We use to get on the bus, which cost 15 cents back then, with our cased shotguns to go hunting in Secaucus.The Swamps are all filled in now and are industrial parks. we used to fish and crab in the Hudson river Which is valuable real estate with high rises. I don't go back there any more
too painful to see what happened. By the way Rancocas we had packs of feral dogs running in the swamps, when they attacked peoples goats the county police would go down and thin them out.

I was a police officer in Pemberton Twp., in Burlington Co., NJ. The town dump operator told me one time that the wild dogs treed him up in a pine for 5 hours.
I remember a little kid that was killed by the dogs in his front yard. I think the boy was only about 5 years old.
Fire fighters, fighting a forest fire, were attacked by the wild dogs. The men climbed up on their fire truck and turned a hose on the dogs to scare them away.
We would sometimes roll into the dump at night with lights off, then hit the headlights and the patrol car's spotlight; jump out and shoot at the dogs that scrabbled to get out of the lights.

There is a lot of history to New Jersey, and many of my direct ancestors were deeply involved in it.

I also trapped during my school years. I caught muskrat and raccoon along the Rancocas Creek.

Bud:
What was the name of the fierce Indian fighter during the F&I War era who roamed northeast PA and northwest NJ? He had seen his father killed by Indians and he took revenge ever after.
One of the small towns in PA along the Delaware River once had, maybe still does have, a statue of him. I used to know his name, but I can't think of it now.

the only name I could find is "Tom Quick" . I have never seen a statue of him but there was a plaque in Port Jervis NY. You might find these sights interesting. also hope this helps. Bud

That's it; Tom Quick. Thanks.

When I was 16 a friend and I were dropped off at Port Jervis to begin a canoe trip down the Delaware. It took several days just to reach the Delaware Water Gap. It was a longer trip by canoe than we had expected. Of course, we were taking our time and doing plenty of fishing.

quote:

My home town is Mount Holly, New Jersey.

I know Mt. Holly!

I used to often go to the Winter reenactment of that militia engagement. Actually Hessians had also moved South because of the "militia activity" just prior to Christmas 1776. The engagement was actually only one day, BUT the townspeople were very gracious to the Germans, and the Germans stayed for several days, and missed out on being able to support the Hessians in Trenton when Washington crossed the Delaware. In fact, it now looks like Washington had a lot of contacts in the town, and the delay was very intentional as Washington had a good spy network.

What was weird is that I have a friend who lives in Mt Holly and does the Loyal American Regiment..., and when we found a map of the Hessian and Loyalist camps for those days in December 1776..., my friend lives in a house built on the ground where his unit once camped....

I live in Damascus, Maryland. Birthplace of Meeshach Browning, author of Forty-Four Years in The Life of A Hunter . I'm about one hour East of Fort Frederick, a F&I era fort.

LD

Lots of history in that area...Too bad what's happened to it since.

Hey Dave, thanks for reviving this thread.

I left NJ in 1979. There were no reenactments in Mt. Holly when I was there.
I was shocked a few years ago when my wife and I returned and went to Ironworks Park in Mt. Holly. There used to be a beach on the mill pond just below the dam. My first real job was a lifeguard there during the summer of 1965. It was a wonderful summer. It was a local swimming hole for over 100 years. I have a photo of my Great Grandmother standing in the shallows wearing one of those old time, full skirted bathing suits.
Now the beach is gone. There is no sign that a beach was ever there! There are large trees growing where people used to lay in the sand.
That really upset me! I don't want to go back.

I know about Meshach Browning and have read his book. (:~) Good stuff.

I don't go back to northern Jersey, where I grew up because all of my hunting and trapping grounds are now either industrial or business parks. One time when I went back I saw a sign for a nature area that was saved. It was 50 acres out of thousands! Now that northwestern Jersey is being developed the new people are complaining about the black bears. Sussex county has always had a population of bears, but not many people until now!

My hometown hasn’t changed much since I was a kid. It was dying then and it’s died more since. I go visit family and goose hunt when I can, which seems to be about every few years.
Walk

As I was nearing retirement, back in the 1990's, my wife and I spent a couple of years deciding where we wanted to go. At that time I had been stationed in Detroit, Michigan and all we knew was that we wanted to get out of the cold and snow. We looked south.
I had been coming to the Alvin York Over-the-log Muzzleloader Shooting Match in Pall Mall, Tennessee for several years, and we liked Tennessee. We started looking here and finally found our retirement home on the outskirts of Cleveland, Tennessee.

This was all part of the Cherokee Nation for hundreds of years. In the 1750's the British marched up here from Charlestown, South Carolina and built Fort Loudon on the Little Tennessee River, about 50 miles north of here. That ended in a siege and massacre of the British during the French and Indian War.
That was followed up by several decades of periodic fighting between the American "Over Mountain Men" who lived along the upper Holston and Clinch Rivers in northeast Tennessee. There was a large Cherokee village near present day Chattanooga that was attacked by the Americans and wiped out.
In 1838 or 1839 the Cherokee were forcefully gathered by the American army and marched to Oklahoma on what has become known as "The Trail of Tears". This town, Cleveland, was about center among the gather points. FT Cass, at present day Charleston, Tennessee, was one of the main incarceration camps. It is only about 15 miles north of here. I have been to "Rattlesnake Springs", near Charleston, where the Cherokee were held before moving them out to Oklahoma. It is a privately owned farm now, but the clear spring waters still flow there.
During the American War Between the States, Cleveland was torn between the Confederate and Union forces. In the beginning this was Confederate territory. Later, the Yankees dominated the area. There were many skirmishes and much guerrilla activity all around here. The great Battle of Chickamauga, in Georgia, was fought only about 40 miles from here.
Things finally quieted down here after the civil war and the town grew and prospered.

quote:

I know about Meshach Browning and have read his book. (:~) Good stuff.

ALAS, much of the area that he hunted is now beneath the surface of Deep Creek Lake.

LD

Much of the areas I used to hunt in New Jersey are now covered with shopping centers, industrial parks, housing projects, and parking lots.
Very sad.

My hometown is Cedarville, CA. Though, I live on the Nevada side. This area was a hot bed of activity during the late 1840's. The Applegate trail goes right through our valley. We are in the extreme Northeast corner of California. The first white men that came through here that we know of were Kit Carson and John C Freemont. High desert climate, rich with antelope, deer, and a lot of coyotes.

quote:

Originally posted by sawbones:
My hometown is Cedarville, CA. Though, I live on the Nevada side. This area was a hot bed of activity during the late 1840's. The Applegate trail goes right through our valley. We are in the extreme Northeast corner of California. The first white men that came through here that we know of were Kit Carson and John C Freemont. High desert climate, rich with antelope, deer, and a lot of coyotes.

Sounds like a better place than the rest of Ca. With the US population nearly double what it was when I graduated HS, it's a wonder there is any place to get away from them. In the last 75 years since I was born, the world population has more than quadrupled! I miss Georgia hunting and had access to a private farm; and deer limit of 12 per season. You better believe I took advantage of that although I never shot all 12. Urban sprawl is crowding us out.