John Blaw Gravesite Visit
I really enjoyed writing the blog about John Blaw and I learned a lot about that Blaw generation in doing so. I think Gael Rodriguez' argument that this is John Blaw 1.1, i.e., John Blaw 1.0's [John Sr.'s] first son, is very convincing. If true, that would make him my 5th Great Uncle. It may be the case that further research will confirm this and shed light on the relationship of this John to John Sr. and to Michael 1.3 and Frederick 1.5. In the meantime, I choose to believe that John Sr. cleared and farmed this land and when he died, his son John continued the farming as his brothers Michael and Frederick farmed their land nearby.
In the blog, I failed to mention that all 120 acres of the Beagle Club are permanently protected from development since the development rights were purchased and this land is adjacent to a much larger undeveloped parcel of land owned by Montgomery Township. After ending our visit to the burial site, Chuck gave me a tour, on the Gator, around the rest of the property. This is quite a beautiful area! Much of it lies on a gently-sloping side of the Sourland Mountain, covered with lovely wooded areas and occasional cleared fields, perhaps cleared 200 years ago by the Blaw's and subsequently by the Skillman's and Garrison's. Around some of these cleared areas are low stone walls, built, no doubt, by piling up the stones found in the fields as they were being farmed. We drove to the very top of the property where we encountered some very wet and swampy areas. On the way back to the club house, Chuck expertly negotiated the maze of paths through the fields, woods and underbrush.
It was an amazing and emotional day for me. I felt that Chuck Mente was just as committed to protecting this sacred site as I am. We talked briefly about the possibility of installing a fence around the site. Until then, John Blaw's final resting place seems well-protected by the Beagle Club fence and by
Rock Brook and the fallen tree.
Ted Blew
ps/I have many close-up photos of John Blaw's grave marker. Let me know if you'd like copies.
Yesterday, I came across a 1988 essay by Kenneth D. Blue [1.5.5.2.4.1.1.5.2] called 'A Visit to Blawenburg', published in the NBFA Chalice, Issue 20 #1 May 2002. In the essay, Kenneth describes, among other interesting aspects of the 1988 summer West Virginia and New Jersey NBFA reunions, a visit by himself, Bill Blue and Walter Baker, a local historian, to various Blawenburg NJ family burial sites, including one located at the Beagle Club! Here is that section from his essay: "We next went to another burial place on the property of the Beagle Club (a rural hunt club), which is North West of Downtown Blawenburg. Here again, field stone markers had been chiseled and placed over the gravesites. The names on these stones were Blaw". The complete essay can be found in the documents section of this website [Document #7].
So, let it be known that I was not the first modern-day relative to stand over the grave of John Blaw, d.1777. Kenneth Blue and Bill Blue stood there 32 years before I did :)