front cover of Iron in the Pines
Iron in the Pines
The Story of New Jersey's Ghost Towns and Bog Iron
Pierce, Arthur
Rutgers University Press, 1966
Deep in the heart of southern New Jersey lies an area of some 96,000 acres of sprawling wilderness. It is the famous Wharton Tract which the state of New Jersey purchased in 1954 for a watershed, game preserve, and park. Many people know and love these wooded acres. Each year, people by the thousands visit Batsto Village, once the center of the iron industry that thrived on the tract more than a century ago.

With warmth and accuracy, Arthur D. Pierce tells the story of the years when iron was king, and around it rose a rustic feudal economy. There were glass factories, paper mills, cotton mills, and brickmaking establishments. Here, too, were men who made those years exciting: Benedict Arnold and his first step toward treason; Charles Read, who dreamed of an empire and died in exile; Revolutionary heroes and heroines, privateers, and rogues. The author's vivid pictures of day-to-day life in the old iron communities are based upon careful research. This book proves that the human drama of documented history belies any notion that fiction is stranger than truth.

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front cover of Smuggler's Woods
Smuggler's Woods
Jaunts and Journeys in Colonial and Revolutionary New Jersey
Pierce, Arthur
Rutgers University Press, 1964
Arthur Pierce tells the vivid story of smugglers turned privateers after the Revolutionary War broke out. He recounts from many sources tales of ships and men who fought and, although outnumbered and outgunned, still played havoc with British shipping. He tells also of the profiteering that went hand in hand with the privateering of the war years. From the Mullica River to Cape May stretched the woodlands and the inlets that harbored smugglers. Stealthy and dangerous though their activities were, the smugglers were not outcasts. They were looked upon with indulgence by many respectable citizens of the day. As bitterness toward the mother country mounted, smugglers were encouraged and actively supported in their operation agains the Crown. The Jersey inns and taverns emerged as the "cradles of revolt" in the years immediately preceding the Revolution. In them were planned and fostered many intrigues and acts of violence that played important parts behind the scenes of military and official action. A number of these inns and taverns are still in active use today and are depicted in the illustrations. Smugglers' Woods deals with smugglers, privateers, patriots, and loyalists to give an exciting account of the tensions and conflicts that gripped pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary New Jersey.
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