Published
between 1966 and 1997, the Batsto Citizens Gazette was the chief source
of news and information on Batsto Village, an open-air museum in the
Wharton State Forest, Washington Township, Burlington County, New Jersey.
From 1766 to 1867, Batsto thrived in the heart of the south Central
Jersey pinelands as an industrial center first for bog iron production
and later for glassmaking. Batsto Village is on the New Jersey and
National Historic Registers.
The museum currently consists of 33 historic buildings, including
the Batsto Mansion, the restored Batsto Post Office (a working rural
Post Office), the gristmill, the sawmill, the general store, and period
houses. Visit the Batsto Village
site for more on the history of the
village.
The
New
Jersey
State
Parks Department also has information on Wharton
Forest.
The quarterly newspaper included a broad variety of items during its
thirty years of publication. The following list includes some of the
types of information published in the Gazette:
- News of the Batsto Village restoration and the Batsto Post Office;
- News of the "Friends of Batsto" and "Batsto Citizen
Committee" members
(including some obituaries);
- Reports of events occurring at the Village (i.e., Bicentennial,
craft fairs, family reunions);
- Legislative, environmental, natural and wildlife
news and editorials;
- Original articles on the history of the village
and the surrounding area, including the industries that Batsto
supported - bog iron and
glassmaking;
- Articles on the history and genealogy of members of
local families, including the Richards, Wharton, and Read families;
- Transcriptions
of manuscripts in the Wharton/Batsto research library archives,
including Kate Aylesford;
- Poetry; and
- Interviews with local residents, historians and others.
The Batsto Citizens Gazette is available in hardcopy from March 1966
(vol. 1 no. 1) to Summer 1997 (vol. 31 no. 2). The Gazette is owned
by the following libraries: Burlington County Library Headquarters
in Westampton, NJ the Pinelands Branch Library in Medford, NJ, and
the Bass River Community Library in New Gretna. Research and photocopies
will be done upon request for a fee. Please contact the BCLS
Reference department, or the Medford
Library for further
information.
The
Pinelands Branch Library staff and volunteers are currently indexing
the newspaper. To date,
1,941 records have been processed.
Genealogy
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