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AGRICULTURE, as understood and practiced by the old folks hereabouts, would, in the present time of progress and improvement, be looked upon as one of the lost arts. Rotation in crops was the rule, that being rye and corn and corn and rye. When the strength of the soil was nearly exhausted by many crops, another field would be cleared of the timber and on it the same rotation repeated. The farmer who planted more than half an acre of potatoes or raised more than a small patch of cabbage was sure one-half his crop would go to waste. Meadow land was depended on for hay and the swamps looked to for pasture. Shelter and warmth were not thought of for stock and the cattle were dwarfed, poor and breachy. In "good old times" farmers had much leisure and the winters were spent in fox-hunting, sleigh-riding and visiting friends. The spring crops did not hurry them and for the autumn work they made no haste. The forest and streams furnished much of the food, the timber the home supplies, and what care had they for the future. The use of fertilizers was not thought of; book farming was a reproach and the use of machinery laughed at.
As time progressed, Philadelphia began to assume the proportions of a city and required increased supplies to feed its inhabitants; farmers then obtained some profits coming out of the soil. Although the number of acres of tillable land was not materially increased, yet crops were made more productive by more care in farming and the application of manures to the land. The progress was slow and it was necessity or accident that induced advancement in modes of agriculture.
The following story will illustrate this statement: Anthony Warrich, a farmer near Chews Landing, owned large tracts of timber land and sent cord-wood and lumber to the Philadelphia market from his landing at the head of navigation on the north branch of Timber Creek. A brick-maker of the city, with whom he dealt, offered to load, free of cost, one of his vessels with wood ashes if the farmer would take them away from incumbrancing his brick yard. The farmer finally consented and the ashes were landed on his wharf, and his sons hauled this valuable fertilizer to a field where it was spread on land on which corn was to be planted. The effect it produced on the crop was magical and people came from far and near to see the result; for as much corn was raised by that process on five acres thus fertilized as previously had grown on twenty acres of the same kind of land. The brick-makers, brewers and foundry men had no trouble thereafter in disposing of this heretofore troublesome commodity, and, in fact, soon began to reap a revenue, from it.
This is but one of the many traditions hanging about this important industry of early days, and fairly illustrates the hesitancy with which this class of men moved. Wooden plows and brush harrows, with clumsy and ill-contrived tools, were put in the hands & laborers. But little care was taken in relation to seeds, and choice fruits or vegetables were seldom to be seen.
The discovery and use of marl as a fertilizer certainly advanced husbandry in New Jersey more than any other means of improving the soil. Inexpensive and simple in its use, it came within the reach of all. If spread upon the moat impoverished land, white clover will follow Indian grass and the product of an ordinary pasture will be largely increased where it is used. It is suitable to almost any crop and adapted to almost every kind of land. It needs no preparation, but can be taken from the pit and applied at once, and when these advantages appeared, farmers found winter work for their men and teams. The immediate outlay of money is so small and the return so quick that the land within and near the marl belt of New Jersey soon increased in value and productiveness.
Of later years farmers are of opinion that its good effect is partially lost by continued use and in some sections much less is applied than formerly. The use of stone, oyster-shell and gas lime has been of great advantage and are extensively used as fertilizers. The opportunities for obtaining these have so much improved of late years that much greater quantities are used than formerly. Patent fertilizers, like patent medicines, have found purchasers in all section of the country and many people have been defrauded thereby. Some are of much value, but the State Experimental Commission, which now makes a thorough analysis of such articles upon the market, publishes quarterly reports of the same. Credulous persons will, however, be found in every community and generally fall victims to such frauds, however much they may be cautioned against them.
The necessity for using meadow or tide marsh land to procure hay is shown in the location of one hundred acres at the mouth of Little Newton Creek (Kaighn Run) by the settlers at Newton, immediately upon their arrival. This was divided among them, and March 11, 1714, the Legislature passed an act to "enable the owners of the meadow adjoining to the lands of Sarah Mickle, John Dale, John Kaighn and Tobias Griscom, adjacent to the Delaware River in the township of Newton, to stop the tide from overflowing." This act was to allow a dam, with tide sluices and gates, to be built at the mouth of Kaighn Run, the better to protect the meadow and grass crop from the tide, and was the first law made to that end in this part of New Jersey. The navigable streams were banked along the sides with tide sluices and gates at proper intervals, with large open ditches leading to them.
December 5, 1760, an act was passed to "enable the owners of meadow on Little Timber Creek to support a bank or dam, lately erected across the creek in order to prevent the tide from overflowing," etc. March 10, 1762, an act was passed for the relief of meadow owners on a branch of Newton Creek, called Back Creek (in Newton township), and June 20, 1765, an act was passed to allow the owners of meadows at the head of Newton Creek to maintain a bank and other water-works heretofore erected and made across the creek (Atmore’s Dam), each of which laws were to protect the owners of meadow or grass lands.
December 21, 1771, an act was passed to raise and keep the road across Newton Creek meadows from William Garrard’s toll-house to Keziah Tomkins’ fast lands. This was done on petition of Thomas Atmore, Isaac Burroughs, Benjamin Thackara, Jacob Stokes, Hannah Cooper, Keziah Tomkins, Elizabeth Thackara and Job Haines, who were the owners of meadow on the easterly side of the creek.
After some effort an act was passed, November 20, 1786, allowing the owners of meadow on Newton Creek and its several branches to erect and maintain a dam and water-works across the mouth of the same at the river. This avoided the expense attendant on keeping up the several dams before named, and secured all the marsh land on the creek from the overflow of the tide. April 6, 1867, a supplement was passed to enable owners of meadow on that stream to improve the same. This did not accomplish the purposes intended, and March 27, 1872, another amendment was passed allowing the dam to be cut and the tides to ebb and flow. Some defect in the position of the sluices and gates prevented the outflow of the water from the inside, which accumulated from the springs and rains, and which made the neighborhood unhealthy and affected the value of real estate. A dam was erected across the mouth of the south branch of Pensaukin Creek by act of December 6, 1775, for the purposes before named. Great Timber Creek being a navigable stream, was banked on both sides, from the mouth nearly to the head of navigation on each branch, but this appears to have been done by individual shore-owners and without any enabling act.
The owners of marsh on Coopers Creek, it being a navigable stream, also reclaimed it in the same manner, and much valuable pasture land on each of these streams is still protected from the tide. This proves conclusively that no attention had been paid, until near the close of the last century, to the cultivation of the upland or artificial grasses, and that all depended upon the marsh lands within reach of the tide for their hay. Farmers, long distances from their meadows, and at great cost and labor, thus obtained their winter supply, which at best was scanty and often of poor quality. The growers of early vegetables for the Philadelphia markets, and who utilized the light sandy soil, were not slow to notice the advantage of manures in forwarding their crops, and soon grew extravagant in their use, but made it profitable. About the beginning of the present century notice was taken of marl and land plaster, and some farmers ventured to sow small breadths of clover, herd-grass and timothy seed.
This was watched with much interest by all neighboring agriculturists, with the hope that their cattle could be fed at much less cost and trouble than attended the securing of the meadow crop. John Gill, Joseph M. Hinchman, Joseph Kay, Samuel Nicholson and a few others made this risk, but the experiment at once dissolved all doubt in this direction, and meadow land began to lose its importance and decrease in value.
At once the benefit was recognized and the next year every farmer - except those whose meadow land adjoined their farms - sowed grass seed with his winter grain.
About this time an attempt was made to utilize iron instead of wood for plows. It was a crude idea, for the land side mould-board and shear were cast in a solid piece, making it so heavy it could not be handled. It went, however, to prove one thing - that the clay soils slipped from it much better than from wood. Soon the pieces were cast separately and the "Peacock plow" was the first iron one that found favor among the farmers. Improvements in other like implements followed, anti cultivators, spike -harrows and gang -plows came into use.
The harvest in the olden time was the event of the agricultural year, and brought together nearly all the able-bodied men and boys and apprentices of the neighborhood. The sickle was the only implement used and all were expected to know how to "reap and bind," that the grain in sheaves might be ready for the carriers and shockers. One of the oldest and steadiest of the men would be selected as leader and his orders were observed. Young men would sometimes wish to test their skill and speed, and would not "cut in" ahead of the man on the lead, but if the work was badly done or disputes arose as to place, a word from the leader settled all. Sometimes among the farmers twenty or thirty reapers could be seen crossing a field of ripened grain and each carrying his "ridge" which was an attractive sight.
About ten o’clock the good wife and her daughters could be seen waiting under some convenient shade to dispense the lunch of hot biscuits and cool drink - which was enjoyed by all. Dinner would he announced by the tin horn or conch-shell, which was always a meal with an hour’s rest thereafter. Four o’clock brought another lunch like that of the morning and was acceptable to the now weary harvesters, and as a day’s work was from "sun to sun," there were several hours yet before the task was ended. Supper over, the traditional darkey fiddler would be pressed into service, the barn-floor cleared and straight fours, hornpipes and double shuffles indulged in, much to the pleasure of the lads and lassies who joined the dance.
The indentured apprentices, who, by their papers, were entitled to two "week’s harvest" were always largely represented on these occasions, and made for themselves pocket-money for the coming year. Nearly all the mechanical operations in the villages would be suspended for this weak, and the man who wanted his horse shod, his wagon mended or his shoe patched must ask it as a favor and not demand it as a right. The cradle gradually took the place of the sickle as a more rapid means of cutting the grain, and at last the occupation of the reaper was gone and the days of the harvest, with its jokes, its lunch and its dance, were almost forgotten.
The wooden flail for threshing grain held its place for many years and made winter work for the man who looked after the cattle and did chores for the family, and our grandfathers winnowed the grain by the use of a barn shovel and trusted to a favorable breeze to carry away the chaff, which required both patience and endurance to accomplish. At last rude fan-mills made their appearance and one of these would accommodate a neighborhood. Now the steam thresher does it all and the sound of the flail may never again be heard.
The grass was cut with scythes, spread with forks and gathered with rakes, taking about two days to prepare it for the mow. The whole process was by hand, and if the crop was clover and it happened to rain, there was little but stems when in the barn, for the frequent handling wasted the head and blossom. The first break in this system was the revolving horse-rake. Farmers were slow to accept its use or acknowledge its merits. "It picks up all the sticks and stones with the grass and I don’t want it," says an old farmer sitting on the fence watching it work. "It rolls and wads the hay so you can’t get it apart," says another near by and who refused to be convinced. These and other objections were lost sight of when its labor-saving advantages were considered, and soon one, if not two, of them could he seen on every plantation.
The grain and seed-drill has supplanted the sower, the plow and the harrow, the combined reaper and binder, the mower, rake and fork; each worked by horses have crowded out the primitive appliances formerly used.
And the farmer’s wife is entitled to a place here as well. With everything as primitive as the implements of her husband, her brain and energies were often sadly taxed as to how she could get on with her work. The kitchen was the largest apartment in the house, and used for an eating, sitting, and cooking-room. The broad, open fire-place was where she was exposed to the heat, and also the strong current of cold air constantly rushing up the chimney, when preparing meals. The crane, the trammels, the huge pots and the griddle and gridiron were ever present, testing her strength and patience at every step. The array of pewter plates, bowls and mugs that adorned the dresser or high wooden mantel (being part of her wedding outfit) had to be cleaned and burnished as occasion required, while the uncarpeted floors and unpainted chairs and tables must receive a certain amount of labor each week to make them presentable to her family and neighbors.
The care of the dairy and its products, as well as the poultry, fell to the females. The washing, ironing and mending for the family (the hired help included) was a weekly ordeal; not to mention the baking, sweeping and scrubbing, - all this without cook-stoves or ranges, without washing-machines or wringers, without patent churns, butter-trays or any other labor-saving appliances. The flax was to be broken and swingled; the wool was to be cleaned, carded and prepared for the loom, and the hum of the wheel told that the mother and daughters were busy during the long winter evenings, and doing their work by the light of the pine-knots burning on the hearth. This picture is without romance or coloring, and she who took upon herself the duties of matron accepted a situation unknown in these days of the divisions of labor and the intelligent application of machinery.
It is needless to speculate as to the development of fruit and berry-growing in this section. With hundreds of acres yet untouched, so well adapted to these purposes, a few more decades, and that which is now forest and swamp may be made to yield its abundance, through the industry of a teeming population. Many can remember when strawberries were a garden luxury, and the brier-hook of the farmer was ever ready to destroy the blackberry and dewberry vines that crowded his fences, when cranberry culture had not been thought of, and many other like growths received no attention.
Developments are constantly being made in our country which aid the farmer in selling the produce of his land, and invite, him to increase his acres of cultivated soil. They give employment to people in manufacturing, mining and transportation, the building of railroads and canals, and the increase of foreign trade by shipping. None of the people so employed produce anything for themselves or their families to eat; hence the earth with the fullness thereof, through the industry of the husbandman, supplies their wants. The improvement in the breed of horses, of cattle, of swine and of poultry has not been overlooked, and he is the exception who has no Jersey cattle in his pastures, no Chester Whites or Jersey Reds in his pens, no choice stock of colts in his stalls nor any Plymouth Rocks or Wyandotts in his hennery.
And other things have kept in the line of improvements. Dwellings are more convenient and comfortable, barns are larger and better arranged, and labor-saving utensils may be found in every department.
The Federal and State governments have come to appreciate agriculture. Chemistry has been invoked and attention given to the best means of increasing crops. The State Board of Agriculture annually brings together the progressive farmers, and the Legislature, with commendable liberality, seconds every effort to advance these objects. The husband-man has now taken his true position in the community; he knows that the wealth of the nations comes out of the land, and that he contributes largely to that end; that his calling commands respect and that the produce of his broad acres finds a place in every family.
A NEW ERA. - The greatest stride in agricultural advancement has probably been developed within the last quarter of a century; not alone in improved implements of husbandry, but in the variety and methods of cultivating the crops. The outbreak of the War of the Rebellion cut off all competition from the South, and the result of this and the demands of an enormous army stimulated the prices of farm products in this county to a wonderful extent; potatoes sold readily at a dollar per five-eighths bushel. Corn brought from eighty cents to one dollar and a half per bushel, oats eighty cents to one dollar per bushel, rye an equal price, and wheat, about the close of the war, brought three dollars per bushel. Strawberries sold at from ten to thirty cents per quart, blackberries twelve to fifteen cents per quart, raspberries eight to ten cents per pint, grapes eight to ten cents per pound, and all other products at equally remunerative prices, and as a result, farm land rapidly increased in value, the best lands readily selling at from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars per acre. The value of all kinds of fertilizers correspondingly increased; stable manure in Philadelphia sold on the wharves at one dollar and fifty cents per small cart-load. It was loaded upon canal-boats, flats and schooners and sent up all the navigable streams to various landings. Farmers increased their areas of cultivated land, and applied manures and fertilizers unsparingly. Peruvian guano, being considered the best commercial fertilizer, sold at one hundred dollars per ton. Hay and straw brought prices varying from one dollar to two dollars and a half per hundred-weight. During such a period farmers became wide awake and progressive. New fruits were rapidly introduced. The first great acquisition was the Hovey strawberry introduced by C.M. Hovey, of Boston, and was the pioneer of the strawberry culture of to-day; this was rapidly followed by other varieties, until the varieties are now over one hundred, and embrace all kinds and shapes of berries. Those varieties most popular at present are the Sharpless, Crescent, Miners, Downing and Mount Vernon, although many others are cultivated profitably. The season of 1886 has been one unusually favorable to the growth of the strawberry, and large crops have been gathered. Probably the largest crop by an individual grower in this county was a yield of sixty-eight thousand quarts on fourteen acres, grown by Ezra C. Bell, of Mount Ephraim. This yield has frequently been excelled by growers of one or two acres, and Friend Bell has exceeded it on ten acres two years previously. The large crop of this fruit caused a series of extremely low prices, thousands of quarts selling below the cost of picking, which fact has discouraged many growers to abandon their plants and turn their attention to other crops. The cultivation of the blackberry began to assume importance about the same time as the strawberry, and acquired considerable success, and is still cultivated, but is not as profitable as formerly, the Wilson Early being the most noteworthy. The best yield in the county was that raised by John S. Collins, on the Benjamin Horner farm, a little north of and adjoining the borough of Merchantville, in the year 1872; he raised and sold one hundred and ninety-two thousand quarts on seventy-five acres, which were sold for the sum of twenty-two thousand one hundred and two dollars. The variety was the Wilson Early.
Raspberries also came into profitable cultivation, the Philadelphia being the most profitable, although its honors have been closely contested by the Brandywine, Cuthbert or Queen of the Market, Early Prolific, Reliance and others. Joshua Barton, of Berlin, in 1884, raised on two acres three thousand two hundred and forty-one and a half quarts of Queen of the Market raspberries, not including those consumed at home. Grapes also attracted their full share of attention, and many large yields and profitable returns have been obtained. In 1885 the crop of John W. Potts, of Stockton township, a little northeast of Merchantville borough, on five acres was a little over fifteen tons of grapes. While these results in small fruits were obtained, the grain and truck farmers were not idle. Large crops of all kinds of vegetables are yearly reported. Joel Clement, of Stockton, raised twelve hundred and eighty-five baskets (five-eighths bushel) of peppers on one acre, which sold for two hundred and twenty-five dollars. Jesse L. Anderson, of Ellisburg, a few years ago had a remarkable yield of sweet potatoes. David Roe, of Haddonfield, has at different times raised very productive crops of cabbages.
Edward W. Coffin, 1885, on two and seven-eighth acres raised three thousand bushels of tomatoes of five-eighth bushel each and weighing thirty-nine pounds per basket, equal to forty thousand six hundred and ninety-six pounds per acre. He also raised on four and seven-eighth acres thirty-nine thousand six hundred pounds of hay. Joseph Errickson, of Delaware township, raised in 1885 eight hundred and forty bushels of tomatoes on one acre; John D. Glover, of Mount Ephraim, four hundred and eighty-six bushels of wheat on seventeen acres; Joseph C. Hollinshead, of Haddon township, raised twenty-five tons of mangel-wurzel beets on one and a half acres. Joel Cement, of Stockton township, near the Bethel Church, raised in 1885, on a little less than a quarter of an acre, eleven hundred baskets (five-eighths bushel) of squashes, which sold for one hundred and eighty-five dollars; and from a little less than one and one-half acres of cabbage two hundred and three dollars was realized; from one and a half acres of late tomatoes two hundred and twelve dollars was realized. Many of these yields and prices have no doubt been exceeded, but enough has been mentioned to give an idea of the crops produced under the advanced system of agriculture.
While these changes have been going on in the rotation of crops and the cultivation of the soil, the condition of the agriculturist has also assumed a more elevated position in all that concerns the conveniences of husbandry and the drudgery of the farmers’ wives, although the relief of the latter has not reached that position to which she is justly entitled. It is true that the spinning-wheel and distaff have been discarded, and the huge fire-places, with their cumbersome crane and pots and kettles, have been succeeded by the cook-stove and range, the bare floors are carpeted, and the plumber’s art frequently called in to locate the bath-tub, and hot and cold water arrangements, the dairyman succeeds the dairy-maid with the milk pail, the washing, ironing and mending for the hired men employed on the farm is a thing of the past, the sitting-room and parlor are furnished in the latest styles of furniture, and adorned with many handsome ornaments, and frequently the chandelier is found in its graceful proportions hanging from the ceiling, yet the system of farmers boarding and lodging their field hands is still in vogue, although the practice of providing convenient and comfortable residences for the employees of the farm, and the men boarding themselves, is being successfully tried among the more affluent farmers. The system is far from being general, although it is not venturing much to say that within the next score of years it will be as uncommon an occurrence to find a farmer boarding his help as it is to-day to find one washing and mending for them. The day is also not far distant when butter-making, except in large dairies, will also be seldom done upon the farm. The milk or cream will be sent to a creamery and the farmer charged a percentage for the manufacture of the product into butter. But to forecast the events that are sure to supplant the methods of to-day is to venture on unknown grounds. Certain it is, however, that the wife of the agriculturist of Camden County is destined to be relieved from much of the slavery that now besets her life, and to enjoy an existence as free from vexatious toil as her city neighbor.
After reviewing the past and noting the continued advance in agricultural pursuits, it is impossible to predict the future of the husbandman of this county.
The importance of a unity of action in many cases necessitated the formation of a Farmers’ Association, which was first organized at Ellisburg in 1872, and afterwards removed to Haddonfield, where it entered on a quiet but steady career of usefulness, the effects and advantages of which are manifold. Aside from the discussions at the meetings, many important actions were taken to relieve the farmers of impositions practiced upon them. For several years exhibitions of cereal products and poultry were yearly held in the Town Hall at Haddonfield, where poultry for breeding purposes was sold and exchanged. The energies of the association were largely curtailed by the Grange movement, which reached this county in 1874. Yet, notwithstanding the absorption of its members in the Grange organizations, the association maintained its organization and membership in the State Board, and, aided largely by its influence, is reorganizing the State Board of Agriculture, and placing that body upon its present influential position. One of the original members of the association is at this time president of the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture. The officers of the association are as follows: President, Edward Burrough; Vice-President, Edward S. Huston; Recording Secretary, George T. Haines; Corresponding Secretary, Edward Burrough; Treasurer and Librarian, Jacob S. Coles; Executive Committee, Isaac W. Coles, Ezra C. Bell, Richard Levis Shivers, Nathaniel Barton and Samuel Wood.
In accordance with the provisions of the law authorizing the creation of County Boards of Agriculture, the Camden County Board of Agriculture was formed, and although yet in its infancy, gives promise of being a useful element, through which the farmers of the county can unite upon any measure tending to advance their interest. The present officers are as follows: President, Ezra C. Bell; Vice-President, Edward S. Huston; Recording Secretary, George T. Haines; Corresponding Secretary, Nathaniel Barton; Treasurer, Jacob Stokes Coles; Directors, Theodore Heider, Edward Burrough and Amos Ebert; Delegates to the State Board of Agriculture, Edward Burrough and Edward S. Huston.
CAMDEN COUNTY POMONA GRANGE. - This organization was established September 6, 1877, in Clement’s Hall, at Haddonfield, by the action of the Union Grange, at Mechanicsville, Haddon Grange, of Haddonfield, Blackwood Grange, of Blackwood, and Hammonton Grange, of Atlantic County. Meetings are held at the hall of Haddon Grange, Haddonfield. Isaac Nicholson was elected Master, and served until 1880, when he was succeeded by Theodore Hyder, of Blackwood, who still presides. R.J. Bynes was chosen secretary at the organization and served until 1880, when he was succeeded by R.L. Shivers, who served one year and was followed by the present secretary, George T. Haines.
EZRA C. BELL, one of the successful agriculturists of Camden County, is a descendant of Henry Bell, one of the Friends who came to Montgomery County, Pa., in the last decade of the seventeenth century, and settled on lands he purchased of William Penn. His son John, born in 1721, married Hannah Reese, and to them there was a son born in 1749, whom they named Jonathan. This son married Mary Stroud, and had two children, - James and Isaiah, the last-named of whom married Catharine Hughes, and died in 1849, aged seventy-eight years, having nine children, the second child, named Hughes, marrying Sarah Comfort, daughter of Ezra and Margaret (Shomaker) Comfort. Hughes Bell for nine years managed the farm attached to the Westtown Boarding-School of Friends, and in 1847 purchased two hundred and forty acres of land in Union (now Centre) township, Camden County. This was formerly known as the Joseph Tomlinson property, originally located by Joseph Hugg. Part of this land was in timber and the remainder in an impoverished and much neglected farm, and, but for a tract of banked meadow on Great Timber Creek, there would have been no hay for winter’s use. At that time his family consisted of his wife and five children, - Chalkley, Charles, Mary, Ezra C., and James. Soon a change was apparent, and by judicious cropping the soil advanced rapidly in fertility. Hughes Bell was among the first in this section to cut and stack his corn before husking, thus saving the fodder from winds and rain. The objection of "costing too much," as argued among farmers, soon vanished and the system was in a few years almost universally adopted. His sons used the first mowing-machine hereabouts, and although cumbersome and defective in many parts, was the beginning of a new era in hay-making for all. Hughes Bell died in 1857 and his sons became the possessors of his landed estate and pursued the same intelligent system of agriculture, taking advantage of the use of machinery and the application of fertilizers. The land which came to Ezra C. Bell was the purchased tract of seventy-one acres and part of the original tract. Much of this land was yet unbroken and some of it difficult to clear. In utilizing a bed of clay on the premises for brick and the manufacture of tile, of which his present residence was built in 1856, with which the farm is underlaid, gradual inroads were made upon the brush and stumps until some of the best land was exposed to the sun and made ready for use. The miles of tile which underlay the soil render it now one of the most productive and easily worked farms to be found in this county. Some of the moist soils are especially adapted to the growth of strawberries and other small fruits, and have been taken advantage of for such purposes. With constant changes as to selected varieties, seasonable care in tillage, the use of proper stimulants and a near market, he has shown what can be done in this direction, which has induced others to the same endeavor.
With seven acres under strawberries in 1883, the yield was about fifty thousand quarts, and gave employment to sixty pickers. This is the result of experiment, observation and experience, the selection of soil, of situation and of other minor details needful to success. With the same attention given to other crops, like results follow: the farmer repaid and the products of the earth increased.
Ezra C. Bell is of that class of men who strive to emulate each other in a friendly way, and assemble themselves together to talk over their losses as well as their gains, who regard education as applicable to fanning as to mechanicss, to merchandising as to the arts or to the sciences; that, although the cold, the heat, the drought and the rains have much to do with the success in crops, yet good farming in its broadest sense, in a measure, overcomes all these, and is sure to yield its reward.
In 1856 he married Esther E., daughter of Reuben and Rachel Roberts. Their children are John H., Edwin R., Margaret C. and Caroline B. Bell. Esther deceased in 1877, and in 1883 he married Priscilla Evans, widow of Joseph B. Evans, and daughter of Zebedee and Elizabeth Haines. Like his ancestors, he adheres to the religious faith and doctrines of George Fox, and is a useful man in his day and generation. Without being a politician, he is a firm adherent to his policy of what is best for the people, and he does not avoid his duty as a good citizen, by refusing to participate in township or county affairs.
JOHN RUDDEROW was a leading agriculturist within the present limits of Stockton township for half a century after the Revolutionary War. He was the great-grandson of John Rudderow, an English lawyer, crown surveyor and adherent of the Established Church. In 1680 he settled in Chester township, Burlington County, N.J., on a tract of laud he had located between the north and south branches of Pensaukin Creek. He was active in the affairs of the township, and was known in the colony as a man education. He was contemporary with George Keith, and influential among his adherents in organizing St. Mary’s Church at Colestown. The great-grandson, John, was born at the old homestead February 17, 1759, but his maternal grandfather, Thomas Spicer, dying during his infancy, entailed him the "Spicer tract," where Merchantville now stands. His parents - William and Abigail (Spicer) Rudderow - removed to what was then, and for many years after, known as the "Cherry-tree Tavern," which stood by the road going from Burlington to Coopers Point, near Merchantville. John Rudderow devoted himself to agriculture, and was among the first to introduce the culture of the peach and tomato into West Jersey. In 1804 he built his residence where is now the centre of Merchantville, and resided there for many years. November 16, 1812, Governor Aaron Ogden tendered him the appointment of associate judge of the several courts of Gloucester County, which he declined. His father had been a warden of St. Mary’s Church, at Colestown, from its organization, in 1752, and was succeeded by his son John, who held the office until his death. He died May 1, 1840, leaving a large estate.
EDWARD Z. COLLINGS, one of the successful cranberry growers of West Jersey, is a lineal descendant of Richard Collings, who married Esther, daughter of Joseph, a grandson of Robert Zane, Joseph Zane died in 1759, and left the estate to his daughters - Esther and Rhoda; the last-named sold her interest to Richard Collings in 1762, who then became the owner of the original Robert Zane survey. Richard Collings, who married Esther Zane, had by her seven children,- Abigail, Esther, Mary, Lydia, Richard, Edward Z. and Joseph (who were twins). Edward Z. was married to Sarah Thomas, of Philadelphia. Their children were Rebecca, who married Jonathan, father of E.C. Knight; Elizabeth, who married John Thackara, of Salem, N.J.; Sarah, who became the wife of Levi Judson, of New York; Isaac, who died young; Edward Z. and Joseph C.
E.Z. Collings was married to Elizabeth H., daughter of Amos and Ann Cox, who was the daughter of William Zane, of Chews Landing. His family were Rachel (wife of Elwood) and Ann (wife of Charles Braddock, of Haddonfield, N.J.), Richard S. (who died in infancy) and Edward Z.
Edward Zane Collings was born in Newton township January 16, 1837, on the old homestead property. This farm was situated on the Gloucester road, leading to Haddonfield from Gloucester, and now comprises the larger part of the tract set apart by its owner, E.C. Knight, for a park. his father died five months before his birth, and to his mother was left the care of three children. She was a woman of great force of character, and in order to keep the family together, carried to the city market the farm products, and sold them, as was the custom then. She was faithful at home, and guided and educated her children by her example and personal influence. The subject of this biography worked upon the farm until he was sixteen years old, in the mean time attending the Champion School, going also to Fellowship Boarding-School, kept by Samuel Smith, for two years, and completing his education by a year’s course at Bridgeton West Jersey Academy. At the age of twenty he taught the Horner School, near Glendale. Becoming of age, he took charge of the farm, which he managed successfully for four years; in the mean time he purchased a farm in Salem County, planting and successfully raising fruit on it. When the war broke out, in 1861, Mr. Collings became the sutler of the Thirty-second Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer infantry (afterward Ninety-ninth Regiment). He also received a commission as military store-keeper from Hon. Simon Cameron. He was in the service three years, taking vessel-loads of goods to sutlers at the front, disposing of the same at a handsome profit. At one time he was too far in advance and was nearly made a prisoner; at another Colonel Mosby cut the train in two, capturing many wagons, but the property of Mr. Collings escaped through good fortune. After the war he purchased a farm in Montgomery County, Pa., and engaged in the dairy business, and now devotes much of his time to the cultivation of cranberries on his property in the lower part of New Jersey, and is reaping large profits on his investments. In 1866 he was elected to the Legislature from the Second District on the Republican ticket, and by his vote aided in making Hon. T.F. Freylinghuysen United States Senator. His children are William T., Edward Z., Sallie F., Annie Z. and Francis F. His two oldest sons are engaged in cattle-raising in Nebraska, have large ranches and are prospering. Mr. Collings is now a resident of Camden.
SOURCE: Page(s) 385-395, History of Camden County, New Jersey, by George R. Prowell, L.J. Richards & Co. 1886
Published 2010 by the Camden County Genealogy Project