Pine BarrensField Notes

Old roads and roadside history · Woodland Township

Butler Place: the inn, the shingle mill, and a cattle refuge story

Historic stop documented · War of 1812 story unverified

Before this stretch of the Pine Barrens became a state forest, travelers on the Buddtown–Barnegat road could stop at Butler Place. The name survived after its inn and shingle mill disappeared.

A road stop through the pines

Henry H. Bisbee’s Place Names in Burlington County calls Butler Place a watering station east of Hedger House. He reports that an 1849 map showed J. Black’s hotel and several houses there. His account also places Tibbs Watering Place, another stage stop, about two miles west of Butler Place. Together, the names preserve a chain of stops on the old road toward Manahawkin. Read Bisbee’s Butler Place entry; the 1849 Burlington County map is online, although I have not independently resolved the J. Black label on its image.

A transcription of an article dated June 10, 1937 says the Butler Place inn opened about 1830 at the junction of the Buddtown–Barnegat and Woodmansie–Chatsworth roads. It describes canvas-covered wagons carrying flour and feed toward shore towns and returning with clams and other seafood. Because the newspaper title and page image were not supplied with the transcription, its specific opening year and traffic details remain a reported account, not independently confirmed facts. Read the 1937 article transcription.

Shingles and a story about hidden cattle

The same 1937 article places a Buchanan and Smock sawmill opposite the inn, beginning in 1892. It says workers cut cedar shingles from logs brought out of nearby Gates Swamp and that both the mill and inn had closed by 1896. The dates and daily production figures in that account need checking against business records or the original newspaper page. The article says the Civilian Conservation Corps later developed a public picnic grove where the old stop had stood.

The article and the 1939 Federal Writers’ Project guide repeat a local tradition that settlers drove cattle inland during the War of 1812 to hide them from British raiders. Neither source identifies a contemporary 1812 record or a named witness. This is useful as a place tradition, not proof of a particular raid or drove route. The 1939 guide describes Butler Place as a grove of birches and young pines along the road. Read the guide, p. 707.

Explore the road, not a presumed foundation

The broad map circle centers on the USGS named locality. A 2008 court opinion locates a later Butler Place rest area on Route 72, several kilometers south of that gazetteer point, so they should not be treated as interchangeable coordinates. The marker does not identify J. Black’s hotel lot, the shingle mill, a cattle hiding spot, or the exact 1930s picnic grove. Consult current Brendan T. Byrne State Forest maps and guidance before visiting. Several old road names have changed, and a named locality is not an invitation to enter any private parcel or closed area.

An especially useful next source would be an inspected high-resolution 1849 map crop showing the Black property and crossroads, followed by the original June 10, 1937 newspaper page. Those could test whether the later account placed the inn accurately and whether a remnant picnic site matches the old junction.

Sources and limits