Taylor-Butler House (Orchard Home), Middletown, NJ. Circa 1850s historical homstead smokhouse about to be restored
I read an interesting article on the internets this weekend written by The History Girl. She did a piece on an archaeological excavation of an historic smokehouse in Middletown Township, New Jersey. It is only about 15 miles from me on The King’s Highway. I don’t think the King of England himself ever made it over when New Jersey was a colony, but they sure named plenty of highways after him.
“According to The History Girl,” I told Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring, “This smokehouse is built into the side of a hill on the grounds of the Taylor-Butler Orchard Home. I think I’m calling a mission to visit the site.”
The next morning, Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring and I woke up Little Texas Aggie Bear very early. Of course, it was difficult to wake him up, as it was with all bears. It’s in their nature.
“Get up!” Aggie Ring yelled at the little bear. “We’ve got magic to do. I’ll make a thermos of hot tea!”
Decades of serving in the Regular Army taught Aggie Ring to always take an inventory of his equipment before heading out on a dangerous mission. Aggie Ring called out the checklist for me.
“Let’s see…” said Aggie Ring. “I’ll call out the name of the equipment and you verify.”
“Official looking photographer’s safety vest to throw off the police if we have to break and enter an historic site?”
“Check!” I replied.
“Little Aggie Bear to distract law enforcement or county employees if the vest doesn’t work.”
“Check”
“Compass?”
“Check”
“Camera tripod?”
“Check”
“Toilet paper?”
“Check”
“Collapsable light reflector?”
“Check”
“Camera tripod?”
“Check”
“Bottled water”
“Check”
“Camera, extra batteries, and lenses appropriate for the mission?”
“Check”
Aggie Ring turned to me and announced. “I think we’re good. Time to hit the beach.”
We drove the 25 km up the Garden State Parkway to the historic site. Luckily, the historic home was closed on Mondays and there was no one there to interfere with Aggie Ring’s evil plan. Texas Aggie Ring and I sent Little Texas Aggie Bear on a one-bear patrol ahead of us to make sure the area of interest was secure and to set up perimeter security.
“Don’t crap in the woods!” Aggie Ring yelled at Little Texas Aggie Bear as he was bear crawling towards the general location of the historical smokehouse. The History Girl said in her article that it was “North” of the homestead. That compass on the iPhone came in handy.
After about 10 minutes, Aggie Ring and I didn’t hear any gunfire so we decided it was safe to proceed. Shortly after we entered the heavily wooded area, I mentioned to Aggie Ring, “This reminds me of parts of Central Texas. It’s a damn good thing I’m one of those lucky people not allergic to Poison Ivy, Poison Ivy, Late at night while you're sleepin' poison Ivy comes a'creepin'
Arou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ound”
Aggie Ring and I continued on a North heading being careful not to step on any twigs or branches so as not to give our position away to the enemy.
Eventually, we heard, “Psssst.” It was Little Texas Aggie Bear. He had located the historic homestead smokehouse built into the side of a small hill. “I don’t think anyone is around or saw us.” he whispered.
For an historic smokehouse, it was fairly impressive. According to The History Girl, it was built here into a small hillside circa 1850. There aren’t many of those left these days. The County Historical Association recently received a grant from the 1772 Foundation and the New Jersey Historic Trust to restore the smokehouse to its former smokin’ glory.
A few days earlier, Dr. Richard Velt, a Professor of Anthropology who is also the Chair of the Department of History at nearby Monmouth University conducted some test digs to verify that the foundation of the smokehouse was stable. Texas Aggie Ring looked up Dr. Velt on the internets. “Oh bother.” sighed Texas Aggie Ring. “He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He probably eats Philly scrapple. Still, I suppose that’s better than Trenton, NJ pork roll.”
According to the article on the internets, the foundation is stable and the Dr. Velt also discovered that there was once an underground ice house nearby where they’d store ice cut into blocks from the nearby river to have during the miserable hot summer months to make mint juleps. “Underground ice house?” asked Texas Aggie Ring. “That would be a most excellent location for my Secret Underground Lair which I could use to takeover the world.”
“Where’s the Stargate?” asked Little Texas Aggie Bear.
“Silly bear.” I chided him. “The Stargate is on the other side of the homestead. You can’t have smoke from a smokehouse blowing into a Stargate and onto another planet. That’s just plain rude and one doesn’t want uninvited aliens coming back through the Stargate expecting to be fed.”
Texas Aggie Ring and I put our two Texas A&M Engineering degrees to work and gave the historic smokehouse a good looking over. We took a sensible 100+ photos to document our dangerous mission. The structure itself appeared to be in fairly good shape considering that it most likely hasn’t been used in well over a century.
Aggie Ring said to me. “Well, the lower half of the smokehouse below the roofline appears to be in fine condition. The bricks are going to need to be repointed, of course. The roof is going to need to be totally replaced and a brickmason is going to have to conduct some serious repair along the top of the structure.”
I took a few photos of Little Texas Aggie Bear and Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring sitting upon the wall of the smokehouse strictly for historical purposes. As usual, Aggie Ring taunted the little bear by telling him, “You do know it is still legal to hunt bear in New Jersey during the hunting season. It is quite possible that besides beef and pork, the family who once owned this homestead smoked bear meat.”
Little Texas Aggie Bear let out a yelp and ran towards the car. I’ve never seen a bear so small move so quickly.
Taylor-Butler House (Orchard Home), Middletown, NJ. Circa 1850s historical homstead smokhouse about to be restored
I read an interesting article on the internets this weekend written by The History Girl. She did a piece on an archaeological excavation of an historic smokehouse in Middletown Township, New Jersey. It is only about 15 miles from me on The King’s Highway. I don’t think the King of England himself ever made it over when New Jersey was a colony, but they sure named plenty of highways after him.
“According to The History Girl,” I told Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring, “This smokehouse is built into the side of a hill on the grounds of the Taylor-Butler Orchard Home. I think I’m calling a mission to visit the site.”
The next morning, Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring and I woke up Little Texas Aggie Bear very early. Of course, it was difficult to wake him up, as it was with all bears. It’s in their nature.
“Get up!” Aggie Ring yelled at the little bear. “We’ve got magic to do. I’ll make a thermos of hot tea!”
Decades of serving in the Regular Army taught Aggie Ring to always take an inventory of his equipment before heading out on a dangerous mission. Aggie Ring called out the checklist for me.
“Let’s see…” said Aggie Ring. “I’ll call out the name of the equipment and you verify.”
“Official looking photographer’s safety vest to throw off the police if we have to break and enter an historic site?”
“Check!” I replied.
“Little Aggie Bear to distract law enforcement or county employees if the vest doesn’t work.”
“Check”
“Compass?”
“Check”
“Camera tripod?”
“Check”
“Toilet paper?”
“Check”
“Collapsable light reflector?”
“Check”
“Camera tripod?”
“Check”
“Bottled water”
“Check”
“Camera, extra batteries, and lenses appropriate for the mission?”
“Check”
Aggie Ring turned to me and announced. “I think we’re good. Time to hit the beach.”
We drove the 25 km up the Garden State Parkway to the historic site. Luckily, the historic home was closed on Mondays and there was no one there to interfere with Aggie Ring’s evil plan. Texas Aggie Ring and I sent Little Texas Aggie Bear on a one-bear patrol ahead of us to make sure the area of interest was secure and to set up perimeter security.
“Don’t crap in the woods!” Aggie Ring yelled at Little Texas Aggie Bear as he was bear crawling towards the general location of the historical smokehouse. The History Girl said in her article that it was “North” of the homestead. That compass on the iPhone came in handy.
After about 10 minutes, Aggie Ring and I didn’t hear any gunfire so we decided it was safe to proceed. Shortly after we entered the heavily wooded area, I mentioned to Aggie Ring, “This reminds me of parts of Central Texas. It’s a damn good thing I’m one of those lucky people not allergic to Poison Ivy, Poison Ivy, Late at night while you're sleepin' poison Ivy comes a'creepin'
Arou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ound”
Aggie Ring and I continued on a North heading being careful not to step on any twigs or branches so as not to give our position away to the enemy.
Eventually, we heard, “Psssst.” It was Little Texas Aggie Bear. He had located the historic homestead smokehouse built into the side of a small hill. “I don’t think anyone is around or saw us.” he whispered.
For an historic smokehouse, it was fairly impressive. According to The History Girl, it was built here into a small hillside circa 1850. There aren’t many of those left these days. The County Historical Association recently received a grant from the 1772 Foundation and the New Jersey Historic Trust to restore the smokehouse to its former smokin’ glory.
A few days earlier, Dr. Richard Velt, a Professor of Anthropology who is also the Chair of the Department of History at nearby Monmouth University conducted some test digs to verify that the foundation of the smokehouse was stable. Texas Aggie Ring looked up Dr. Velt on the internets. “Oh bother.” sighed Texas Aggie Ring. “He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He probably eats Philly scrapple. Still, I suppose that’s better than Trenton, NJ pork roll.”
According to the article on the internets, the foundation is stable and the Dr. Velt also discovered that there was once an underground ice house nearby where they’d store ice cut into blocks from the nearby river to have during the miserable hot summer months to make mint juleps. “Underground ice house?” asked Texas Aggie Ring. “That would be a most excellent location for my Secret Underground Lair which I could use to takeover the world.”
“Where’s the Stargate?” asked Little Texas Aggie Bear.
“Silly bear.” I chided him. “The Stargate is on the other side of the homestead. You can’t have smoke from a smokehouse blowing into a Stargate and onto another planet. That’s just plain rude and one doesn’t want uninvited aliens coming back through the Stargate expecting to be fed.”
Texas Aggie Ring and I put our two Texas A&M Engineering degrees to work and gave the historic smokehouse a good looking over. We took a sensible 100+ photos to document our dangerous mission. The structure itself appeared to be in fairly good shape considering that it most likely hasn’t been used in well over a century.
Aggie Ring said to me. “Well, the lower half of the smokehouse below the roofline appears to be in fine condition. The bricks are going to need to be repointed, of course. The roof is going to need to be totally replaced and a brickmason is going to have to conduct some serious repair along the top of the structure.”
I took a few photos of Little Texas Aggie Bear and Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring sitting upon the wall of the smokehouse strictly for historical purposes. As usual, Aggie Ring taunted the little bear by telling him, “You do know it is still legal to hunt bear in New Jersey during the hunting season. It is quite possible that besides beef and pork, the family who once owned this homestead smoked bear meat.”
Little Texas Aggie Bear let out a yelp and ran towards the car. I’ve never seen a bear so small move so quickly.