Running Head: THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PINES: A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETAL EXAMINATION

Andrew Leahey

HIST-501: Term Paper

Drexel University
THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PINES: A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETAL EXAMINATION 2

Abstract

This article aims to examine the industrial history of the region in Southern New Jersey known

as the Pine Barrens (NJPB) from a Science, Technology and Society perspective. This region,

possessing unique geological, environmental and ecological factors, has undergone a series of

shifts in its industrial base. Early attempts to capitalize on the region’s resources revolved around

the smelting of bog iron. Later, forays in to the manufacturing of glass, paper, and agricultural

endeavors in the form of cranberry and blueberry farming also shaped the local economy.

Keywords: pine barrens, South Jersey, New Jersey, bog iron, glass making, paper mills
THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PINES: A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETAL EXAMINATION 3

The Industries of the Pines: A Science, Technology, and Societal Examination

The New Jersey Pine Barrens (NJPB) is a region in Southern New Jersey consisting of

more than a million protected acres of pine lands. While referred to as barren, the NJPB is

actually a unique environment, existing as the sole natural habitat for a number of flora and

fauna; the Pine Barrens Tree Frog is one of the most enigmatic and difficult to photograph

amphibians in North America, and the NJPB has more carnivorous plants call it home than any

other region on earth. The exotic plant and animal life, as well as the dense canopy of Pitch Pine

and high bush blueberry undergrowth could lead an observer to imagine the region as untouched

by the industrialization following the Colonial period. This would be a mistaken assumption,

however, as the region was once the capital of iron production in the colonies, and indeed

supplied the Americans with cannon throughout the Revolutionary War. As a result of this

industrial history virtually the entirety of the NJPB consists of second or third-growth forest; the

demand for bog iron swallowed up hundreds of thousands of acres of pineland for the production

of charcoal to be used in the iron smelting process.

An understanding of the early industrial history of the NJPB requires an understanding of

the science surrounding its first industry: bog iron. This early form of iron production, known as

cold blasting, had its peculiar supply requirements. First, was the bog iron itself; found in creek

beds, this low-purity iron is rendered in suspension through a series of chemical processes

occurring in the water itself. The second requirement for the cold blast method was a vast supply

of charcoal. Charcoal is created when wood is burned in the absence of oxygen; and wood, in the

form of Pitch Pine, is an abundant resource in the region. The third and final supply required was

flux, or a material that would bind with the impurities in the bog iron during the smelting process

(Bartholomew & Metz & Bartholomew, 1988). The flux used in the cold blast method was lime,
THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PINES: A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETAL EXAMINATION 4

derived from oyster shells readily available from the oyster houses located in the shore towns

dotting the NJPB eastern border.

The technology of the region was continually shaped around the limited natural

resources, and the industrial base permitted by those resources. The most apparent case of

regional factors shaping technological development occurs when an alternative method of iron

production is developed in Pennsylvania, around 1840. This method, known as hot blasting,

utilized resources that the Pine Barrens did not possess. In place of charcoal, anthracite coal was

used in the hot blast method, allowing for a reduction in the overall time required for the

smelting process. Additionally, the Pennsylvania forges utilizing anthracite simultaneously found

use for iron ore, significantly purer iron but requiring the higher temperatures of the hot blast

method, for their smelting (Bartholomew & Metz & Bartholomew, 1988). The industrial base of

the NJPB collapsed, and the local industry towns, unable to adapt to the new methods of iron

production, were forced to reinvent themselves or cease to exist; some turn to glassmaking,

others to paper mills and the timber industry, still others find their niche in agriculture.

The social impacts of these industrial shifts are where this author intends to shed new

light. Utilizing existing research materials, company ledgers, town documents, and primary

sources, it should be possible to paint a clearer picture of how the individuals working and living

in these industrial towns saw their situation. An examination of the worker and resident’s

demographic information should likewise help to inform the research as to how, and why, these

towns came to see both boom and bust. Furthermore, rather than seeing the fall of the iron

industry in the clear view of history, as inevitable, this article intends to examine how the

residents of the era came to understand their future being reshaped ahead of them.
THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PINES: A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETAL EXAMINATION 5

Several questions are raised reviewing the existing literature: first, what constituted a

typical worker in these early towns and initial iron forges? There are a wide array of answers

given, from Hessian soldiers from the revolutionary war (McMahon, 1973) to escaped slaves

(Pierce, 1984) and immigrant workers. Second, upon the reinvention of each individual town,

from bog iron to glassmaking, papermaking or the timber industry, how did the labor base

change? The shift from iron to glassmaking constitutes a shift from one type of labor to what

amounts to artistic work. Could these iron workers and glassmakers be the same individuals? If

not, where did the iron workers go? From where did the glassmakers come? It is the intention of

this author to answer these questions, and in so doing paint a better picture of the rise and fall of

industry in the NJPB.

THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PINES: A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETAL EXAMINATION 6

Purpose

This article intends to examine three historical industrial towns, Hampton Furnace,

Batsto, and Atsion. The latter two share their genesis under the same initial builder and first

owner, Charles Read. All three share the same initial industrial base, having been industry towns

grown around an iron furnace. Each, however, share very different outcomes following the fall

of the iron industry: Batsto exists today in the tourism industry, as a preserved historical village;

Atsion, while still possessing a few of its original buildings, has largely been lost to the pines;

Hampton Furnace, however, has been completely lost; the buildings not only no longer stand, but

there is even much contention as to their original locations.

These three towns typify the classic story of the fate of NJPB industrial towns. Thus,

while the research will be largely limited to the fates of these towns only, an understanding of the

causes for their collapse should be informative to the study of the NJPB as a whole. However, it

is not the intention of this author to contend that the models each of these three towns followed

are identical to every other industrial town in the region, and care should be taken in applying the

theories put forth in this article to areas outside of the scope of the research.

This paper will conclude with an examination of how the human ecology model can be

applied to future land use planning within the NJPB. The intention of this author is to make the

contention that the reason for the survival of some industrial towns and the demise of others lies

in their ability to reinvent themselves when subject to the whims of outside economics, social

pressures, and technological advancement. The history of the NJPB is change, reinvention, and

survival. At this time, many of the historical towns that still exist are languishing, unable to raise

enough from the tourism industry to support themselves. This is due in large part to their having
THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PINES: A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETAL EXAMINATION 7

fallen under the protection of the Pinelands Commission. While the intention of the commission

is positive, the result is stagnation. The towns that were able to make the shift to agro-industries

prior to the commission’s regulation of the region are the ones that are sustainable. Those that

were without industry are left like Atsion, barely maintained, and relegated to obscurity.

If the history of the NJPB has been reinvention, the regulators overseeing the

preservation of this region, namely the Pinelands Commission, must consider this fact when

adopting land use regulations. The current model is mistaking a snapshot in time for the

historical genesis of each individual preserved town; this model is simply not sustainable. The

most successful and well preserved historical industrial towns have been the ones that have been

allowed to utilize a portion of their land for industries that remain economically viable. The

overwhelming majority have turned to cranberry farming, which is not any less historically

accurate than the shift to tourism.

THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PINES: A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETAL EXAMINATION 8

An Examination of the Existing Research

The existing research on the industrial history of the NJPB predominantly revolves

around two approaches. The first, is the biography of individual industrialist families, utilizing

original documents, legal proceedings, company ledgers, and family lore to piece together a

complete picture from the historical perspective. The second approach is with an eye on the land

use planning and ecological history of the region. This ecological examination is typified by

Berger and Sinton, who’s work greatly influenced and informed this article. Its intention is to

examine the historical record from the perspective of how the limited resources of the NJPB was

utilized for industry.

Family Biographical Model

The research focusing on historical records of the individual industrialist families of the

region is dominated by Pierce’s “Family Empire in Jersey Iron”, focusing on the fate of the

Richards family, principal owners of the iron forge at Batsto. As well, there are largely anecdotal

works intended to retell the histories of individual towns (McMahon & Pierce), from a similar

pseudo-biographical perspective.

The family biographical model largely ties the fates of the individual industries and the

towns growing around them to the biographies of the propriator families. Personal proclivites,

talents and foibles take center stage, as is seen in Pierce’s examination of the fate of Charles

Read, and his understanding of Read as principally responsible for the failures at Atsion Forge.

This focus seems to take for granted the fact that each industrial town had a potential path which

would have lead to success. That is to say, each imagines the fates of the individual families and

towns of the NJPB to be entirely the cause of individual personalities and shortcomings.
THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PINES: A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETAL EXAMINATION 9

Critical Assessment of the Family Biographical Model

These works do not examine, and were not intended to examine, the key role the regions

limited resources and technological development within their industries played in the fates of

these individuals and towns. For example, Pierce sees the mental instability of Charles Read to

be the dominant factor in the fates of the towns he oversaw. Indeed, Pierce states “major

industrial development in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens is the story of late autumn in the life of

Charles Read of Burlington” (Pierce, 1984). It is the contention of this author that outside factors

played a dominant role in the rise and fall of the individual NJPB towns, its industry, and the

families tied to the fates of both.

It is the position of this paper that the environment of the NJPB forced industry to walk a

very narrow path. Each successive shift of industry was in response to an inability to compete

with advancing technologies in the old industrial base. For example, the move from bog iron to

glassmaking was forced by the advent of the hot blast method of iron smelting, which utilized

materials and methods unavailable to the NJPB. This is not a case of an individual or family

failing economically, this is a case of outside forces rendering a mature industry immediately and

irredeemably obsolete – virtually overnight. Thus a distinction is to be made between

“adaptation”, the very thing the NJPB industrial base was unable to do; and “reinvention”, the

only path left open to it. Thus, the true story of NJPB industry is a story of outside forces acting

upon individuals and communities, who are then compelled to make the best of the new situation

they find themselves in. The dominant focus, therefore, must be on those outside forces: what

caused them, what shaped them, and how they acted upon the NJPB industrial base.
THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PINES: A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETAL EXAMINATION 10

Human Ecological Model

There exists also a body of work on the historical land use of the Pine Barrens; these

treatments focus predominantly on human development since the pre-Colonial period, and its

effect on shaping the NJPB (Hayden et al, 2007), with policy implications for the future of the

region. Of particular instruction is the work of Berger and Sinton, who understands historical

land use planning to have been significantly informed by cultural knowledge, “as a practical

planning tool we must know the relationships between the traditions of compatible use and the

natural and built environments of the Barrens” (p. 184). For example, his understanding of the

siting of villages is with a focus on location to watersheds first, and other natural resources only

after that consideration, even after the ubiquity of water access rendered such a settlement model

unnecessary (p. 187). This understanding of cultural and traditional pressures, applied to the

NJPB, should help inform the arch of industrialization and collapse in the region.

Critical Assessment of the Human Ecological Model

It is this model of examination that the author found most compelling. However, what

was found to be lacking was a consideration for the individual industrialists and workers

involved in the shifting industrial bases. Looking at the history of the region purely from a

rational land use model misses the human element that is present when the individual

biographies and personal stories are included. To some extent, the criticism of the human

ecological model is a lack of consideration for the biographical model; just as the chief criticism

of the biographical model is a lack of consideration of the ecological and environmental aspects

present in the human ecological model.

THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PINES: A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETAL EXAMINATION 11

Conclusion

A gap in the research exists in the roles of the displaced individual workers and

industrialists in the fate of NJPB industry. The intention of the author is to examine the fate of

the NJPB industrial towns, accounting for individual biographies, demographics, and economics,

as well as a consideration of the environment of the region and the human ecology model as

outlined by Berger and Sinton. They define the role of human ecology in the region in his

proposal that future land use planning “recognize landscape patterns of use and tradition as a

basis for siting new uses” (p. 182). It is with this lens of tradition that this author intends to focus

on the historical record of the region, in the hopes of illuminating the factors at play in the rise

and fall of NJPB industry.

THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PINES: A SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETAL EXAMINATION 12

References

Bartholomew, C. L., Metz, L. E., & Bartholomew, A. M. (1988). The Anthracite Iron Industry of

the Lehigh Valley . Easton, Pa.: Center for Canal History and Technology.

Berger, J., & Sinton, J. W. (1985). Water, Earth, and Fire: Land Use and Environmental

Planning in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.

Hayden, N., Mladenoff, D., Tuyl, S. V., Scheller, R., & Clark, K. (2007). Simulation of Forest

Change in the New Jersey Pine Barrens Under Current and Pre-Colonial Conditions.

Forest Ecology and Management, 255, 1489-1500.

McMahon, W. H. (1973). South Jersey towns, history and legend . New Brunswick, N.J. :

Rutgers University Press.

Pierce, A. D. (1964). Family Empire in Jersey iron; the Richards Enterprises in the Pine

Barrens. New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press.

Pierce, A. D. (1984). Iron in the Pines: the Story of New Jersey's Ghost Towns and Bog Iron.

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press.