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.

Go to EBay

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!