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Summary: Mullica River History....People Not Places
Review: I own the unofficial Mullica River Website. I purchased this book in hopes of finding answers to the most common questions thay may arise when you visit the Mullica - i.e. What is the history with the abandoned house at the end of the river? or Who designed the Cuts? I didn't find these answers, rendering the book almost useless to me. It was full of chatter about people that really had very little to do with the Mullica River at all! There were a few useful sections about the British running the river ages ago, but still found the book to be difficult reading. The book was copyrighted originally in 1945, so don't plan on seeing recent history in the book (or propper grammer for that matter). It was REVISED (one page to be exact) in 1963. Worth the money? Not for me. It now sits on a bookshelf collecting dust. Perhaps at my tag sale next year. Rob Blanda
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Summary: Our Mullica-slip into the nostalgia
Review: I read this book in 1975 and again in 2002. It was like slipping into an old, soft woolen shirt I love to wear on cold winter evenings; it wraps around you like an old friend. Beck does an excellent job introducing us to the "Down Jersey" folk who lived along the Mullica River in simpler times; Charlie Weber, the last salt hay farmer who.."rolls mosquitoes off his sun-armored arms as if he were rolling down his sleeves"; Snapper Cobb,.. "for whom big days are marked by turtles and herring in the tide; Aunt Hattie Ford, who ran an old-fashioned grocery store where locals gathered around a comforting pot belly stove to exchange news and keep company, and where Beck was accepted as a native; and Constant Ford, who would "tramp across the old fields in search of bits of glass, old bricks, and cellar holes, seeking traces of his youth". Like an old friend of ours, Beck invites us along with him as he pokes around in all the hamlets that have held their own since the country was first settled; Lower Bank, Herman City, Green Bank, Crowleytown, Bulltown, and Pleasant Mills. He also treats us to some special forays out into the woods surrounding the river, where he gives us original material on places and things that have lived in Jersey legend since the rum runners ran these woods; Joe Mulliner, "highway robber of the pines"; the Leeds Devil, who.. "like a giant bird of prey, is seen to hover above some silent, star-bespangled pond within the umbrous recess of a cedar swamp"; and the lost town of Aserdaten, which has been swallowed by the vegetation of the mysterious Forked River Mountains. One of the really neat things about this book is that, because it was written in 1945, we get to learn about people and places from two distinct period of time. We learn a little about life along the Mullica during the World War II period, and we learn a lot about life along the Mullica in long times past, as the locals prominent in the late 1930's and early 40's relay their hand-me-down memories to Beck about the major events that shaped the river in colonial times. There are stories about the role of the river in the days of the iron furnaces at Batsto and Atsion, and glass production, moss pulling, pine cone gathering, and of course shipbuilding. The Mullica was an important river during the Revolutionary War, both as a highway for war supplies and a hideout for privateers who harassed and plundered British shipping so much that the British finally sent in several shiploads of well-armed troops to "break up once and for all this privateering along the Jersey coast". For some of the material in this part of 'Genesis', Beck digs information out of the late Gus Schneider, who made it a favorite hobby to collect the legends of British ships and Patriot resistance. Beck meets his match with Gus, for as the locals tell Beck about Gus;..."he don't write like you do....he just digs things up out of the river to prove its all true". All of this is just a glimpse of the wonderful stories about the people and places who made the Mullica their home that are to be found in "Jersey Genesis". In the final chapter (up around the headwaters), Beck expresses a melancholy sadness in bringing his story to a close..."the end of our journey and the river's end as well". Henry Charlton Beck loved the Mullica, and he brings the reader to love it as well. I look forward to a time in the future, perhaps when I have retired, to bring this book off the shelf and relive the trip to Down Jersey again.
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