Charles Henry Grant and Herbert Halpert, October 3, 2026

  • Indiana University Libraries, Halpert Mid-Atlantic Collection catalogues a playable sample of Charles Henry Grant (b. 1868) performing the ring-play song “Two Jolly Sailor Boys” on July 29, 1939, at Collier’s Mill, New Jersey, disc 12-4865 B. The broader collection dates to 1938–1939 and comprises 40 discs of regional songs. This catalogue supports a recorded singer and locality, not a specific building or recording-room coordinate.
  • The Library of Congress Halpert finding aid lists box-folder 78/1 photographs of Charles H. Grant at Colliers Mill in 1938 and Charles with brother Ivins Grant (page 13). New Jersey legend folders include 10/1 “Munyhun — wizard of the Pines” and 10/3 strong-man legends (pages 8–9). Sound-disc listings name Grant, but a catalogue is not the same as inspection of the underlying photo or manuscript. The document calls him Charles H. Grant, consistent with IU’s Charles Henry Grant.
  • An Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music Resound account says Grant introduced Halpert to stories of Jerry Munyhon, Cracky Wainwright, Old Joe Britton and Jesse Johnson in summer 1939; Halpert returned in 1940–1942. It says 1941 archive recordings include performances of “Sammy Giberson’s Air Tune” by Ivins McKelvey, a separate storyteller; do not ascribe that recording to Grant. The PDF downloaded and checked; its visible first page is a continuation, so author/title of the larger article are not confidently assigned.
  • John McPhee, “The Pine Barrens—I,” November 25, 1967 quotes dated Halpert notes for June 19, 1941, when Grant told the mutually swallowing snakes tale attributed to Cracky Wainwright and the seventeen-foot horns tale. McPhee is a later publication of Halpert notes; the original dissertation text was not inspected. Paraphrase the fanciful events and preserve the chain of tellers.
  • Pinelands Commission naming/folklore lesson describes Salt Caesar as a legendary strong woodchopper and Jerry Munyhon as a magical trickster. LOC uses Munyhun in a folder title. Treat spelling as variant in transmission, not proof of a legal identity. The state lesson does not say Grant told a Salt Caesar account; do not attach that legend specifically to him.
  • For present-day context, NJDEP’s Colliers Mills WMA story and WMA map document a broad public landscape and designated parking. The 1938–1939 archival locality is not a checked public arrival coordinate. Route only to parking independently verified from the current agency map, and never to an imagined recording spot or legend site.

Avoid conflation: The archive already has Abraham Grant, a charcoal burner reported dead in 1939 near Archer’s Corner. This story concerns Charles Henry Grant, alive in the 1938–1941 collecting record. A shared surname and regional setting do not establish a relationship.