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Monday, March 29, 2010

The John C. Budd Farm Ledger and the New Gretna Connection

My friend, Dick Ireton, alerted me to a farm ledger belonging to John C. Budd that contained a handwritten notation (See below) that reads "John C. Budd, Out West Rd., New Gretna, N.J." that recently appeared on EBay.


The ledger, with entries from 1856 - 1895, was advertised as being from New Gretna. Photos of some of the ledger pages are also presented. You can see the EBay auction listing by clicking on the link below. Hit your browsers Back Arrow to return to this page.


Note: I sent this Blog entry to the seller at EBay who has since corrected the title of the ledger from "1856-95 John C Budd Farm Ledger Book, New Gretna, NJ" to "1856-95 John C Budd Farm Ledger Book, West Deptford, NJ". He also has changed his summary comments from those presented below to reflect the information presented on the Blog.

Sample pages from the Budd ledger from EBay.

The ledger sure was a puzzlement to me, as the original auction summary comments regarding the ledger (See below) lists names that are clearly not New Gretna names. Not a Mathis, Cramer, French, Adams, Loveland, or Allen among them!
A vintage farm account ledger book dating from 1856 through 1895 of John C. Budd, West Road, New Gretna, N.J.. The ledger includes names of Thomas Budd, Branson L. Ore, Richard W. Howell, Abner Starn, Frank Snyder, David Paynter, Joseph Osgood, Henry Hendricson, Carles Carter, Josiah Budd Jr., Jacob and William Myers, John Postol, Clement Raves, James Mickle Jr., B.P. Howell, Samuel Watkins Jr., Stewart Senior, Isaac Eldridge, Casper Budd, William E. Tatum, John M. Budd, Joseph Budd, Andes E. Budd, and others. There are 62 pages with about 10 pages of child doodling / alphabet practice, and the first page with pasted in recipes. about 6 pages are torn with some of the 2 cent Internal Revenue stamps cut out. Lots of 2 cent stamps still on the pages. Signed in ink on front of book: John C. Budd and on back of book: John C. Budd Day Book.

I did some research on the ledger writer, John C. Budd. He was clearly from the John C. Budd farm in West Deptford, and not from "out West Road in New Gretna", as his wife's name Emma L. appear both in the ledger and the 1880 census..


I thought that identifying one of the persons mentioned in the ledger as also living in the West Deptford area wouId confirm the ledger's origin outside the New Gretna area. I choose one of the more unusual names, Branson Ore, to narrow down the possibility of there being more than one person with the same name. If he lived in the West Deptford area, that would pretty much confirm that the ledger was from the West Deptford area and not New Gretna.

The 1870 census information below shows that Branson Ore was, indeed, from West Deptford, thus confirming my theory. I suspect that if I had the time to check out the other names from the ledger, they would also be from the West Deptford area. The ledger entries clearly are not from the New Gretna area.


The 1900 West Deptford census (see below) also helps solve the mystery. It shows John M. Budd, who appeared in the 1880 census as John C. Budd's son, as the head of the household. John C., named after his grandfather, and Clifford are two of his sons and thus grandsons of the John C. Budd who kept the farm ledger now being auctioned on EBay.


Brothers John C. (Jack) and Clifford ended up living in New Gretna sometime after 1930 as they don't appear in the 1930 Bass River Township census. One of them, probably older brother Jack, brought their grandfather's ledger with them. The ledger notation which reads "John C. Budd, Out West Road, New Gretna, N.J." referred not to the original John C. who wrote the ledger but to his grandson, John C. "Jack" Budd who actually lived on West Road and was actually written two generations after the original ledger was penned.

The location of the old Jack Budd farm on West Road.
Map courtesy of Bing Maps.

The Cliff and Veronica "Bonnie" Budd home on the corner of North Maple Avenue and Mink Path. (February 1, 2009 photo by Pete Stemmer.)
Obituary courtesy of Shirley Whealton.

Both Veronica (1907-2001) and Cliff (1899-1986) are buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Cedar Run. Jeanette (1938-1938), their daughter who was stillborn, is buried in the same plot.

I don't know much more about the Budd family in New Gretna nor do I have any photos of them. I'm hoping that someone out in the Blog-O-Sphere can tell me more about them and, perhaps, furnish a photo or two.

Pete S

PS- Wednesday's planned Blog on the children of Joshua and Rebecca Grant Mathis may be a day or so late, due to me getting sidetracked on this ledger issue. But, hey, that's the fun of digging into this history stuff! Stay tuned!

7 comments:

  1. If anyone has info on John M or John C Budd, please get in contact. I'm just starting to trace my family history. There were three more siblings after Clifford, Gladys, Bertha and Helen. My great grandmother Bertha C Budd Wells, was born in 1905. John M is her father, John C her grandfather.

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  2. Julie,

    Do you have any photos from your Budd line that you could share? I located someone with photos of Jack and Cliff Budd from New Gretna and will be doing a posting with them in a few weeks.

    Pete S

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  3. I have information starting from Andes Budd, if anyone is still interested.

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  4. I would be interested in any genealogy info you may have on the Budd family. You may send me an email at bassriverhistory@gmail.com.

    Pete S

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    1. Invitation to view my tree with the Budds has just been sent. I'm not sure where it starts when a guest opens it, but assuming it begins with me, I'm Wendy. Then my mother Bertha. Then her father Benjamin Harrison. He's the son of John Postell (Postoll in the above ledger) and Rachel Budd. Rachel is Josiah Budd's daughter from his second marriage. The rest is fairly self-explanatory.

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  6. Oh, wow! These are my mother's family. John Postol (also spelled Postell) was my mother's grandfather. Josiah Budd, Jr. was my great grand uncle, his half-sister Rachel having married John Postol. John C. Budd appears to be my 1st cousin 3x removed. He was the son of Thomas D. Budd who was the son of the immigrant ancestor Casper Budd (grandfather to the other Casper listed in the ledger). They all resided, as you discovered, in West Deptford, particularly around Thorofare and Red Bank. This is fantastic!! I just got a message today from a woman who bought a photo off ebay of the Casper Budd listed in this journal and his two sons, Walter and Clement. This is almost as good as hitting the lottery!

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