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Outside Thinkers

South Jersey’s great outdoors have some great supporters. Whether they be activists, artists, people from our past or ordinary people that enjoy doing extraordinary things outside, we thought you might like to meet some of them.

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SPOTLIGHT

Mark Demitroff is a Pinelands geographer and a member of the Permafrost Group at the University of Delaware. He has published numerous papers on his unique studies and gives several presentations every year in South Jersey on the region's ecology and landforms. Demitroff is also a NJ Certified Tree Expert.

Hollis Koster, a self-taught botanist from Green Bank, developed a collection of specimens that is now one of the foremost documentations of flora in South Jersey during the 1930s and 1940s. Physical specimens from his collection are currently filed in Philadelphia. Historians can now view a unique story through the analysis of his letters and collections from the decades surrounding WWII.

ITEMS WITHIN Outside Thinkers

Andrew J. Rider

Known as the "Cranberry King," Andrew J. Rider revolutionized the local industry and brought a keen sense of entrepreneurship and risk to the business. He has also left behind numerous stories to excite and inspire any lover of history or South Jersey.

Bob and Leda Muth

Bob and Leda Muth are among South Jersey's top organic farmers. In 2007, they won the prestigous Mid-Atlantic Master Farmer Award. They also run a community supported agriculture (CSA) system. The CSA began in 2001 with about 30 families, it's now grown to over 300.

Charles Read, better known as the "Ben Franklin of New Jersey," had his hands in just about everything and made it his business to try a new venture at least once. A man of many interests and talents, Read's story is one of South Jersey's most inspiring.

Colonel James Fenwick

Already a prosperous farmer in South Jersey, Colonel James Fenwick decided to experiment with the cultivated cranberry. Fenwick purchased nearly 600 acres and developed an irrigation system to support his cranberry farm. Eventually, Fenwick's daughter married Joseph Josiah White, and the couple developed the foundation for Whitesbog.

Dr. James Still

While Dr. James Still never studied medicine formally, his practice was still an exception among the traditional methods to treat injury and illness in the Pinelands. Most families relied on home remedies developed by American Indians or new settlers from Europe. Dr. Still developed a number of his own treatments and recorded them in his autobiography, first printed in 1877.

Elizabeth White

Elizabeth White was responsible for cultivating New Jersey's high bush blueberries. Full of entrepreneurial spirit, she convinced her father, JJ White, and Dr. Frederick Coville to take a chance on her experiment. Its success prompted a new industry in South Jersey and developed into one of America's favorite fruits.

Pinelands music finds its roots at Albert Music Hall in Waretown, NJ. However, before this esteemed hall was built, Pineys gathered at the infamous Homeplace. Homeplace was actually the home of Joe Albert, who purchased the land and built a house for his fishing buddies. Soon, weekly "Saturday Night Jamborees" became a impenetrable tradition in South Jersey. Albert then developed plans to expand Homeplace, and from his original ideas, Albert Music Hall was born.

John McPhee is the author of The Pine Barrens, the authoritative book on the region and its history, culture, and environment. For decades, it has been recommended as a must-read by historians, conservationists, and Pineys. Within the book, McPhee incorporated his own memories, as well as the personal stories of the elusive people of the Pinelands he met along the way.

Jonas Cattell might as well be a superhero. He may have started out as an ordinary man, but legend and history have created something far more powerful and impressive. Cattell was famous for his depth of knowledge concerning the Pinelands. He was even one of the first pioneers to cut several Pine Barrens trails. Cattell's most amazing feat occured during the Revolutionary War when he supposedly ran 10 miles from Haddonfield to Fort Mercer to alert the American troops to a Hessian attack.

Karl Anderson, a Woodbury resident and biologist, specializes in botany. He recently assisted the Gloucester County Nature Club with its book, Natural Places of Gloucester County New Jersey. Anderson provided a wealth of knowledge about local plants and helped to write and edit many of the book's scenic site descriptions. To acculmulate information, Anderson searched for trail systems throughout Gloucester and visited tax offices to unearth information about parks and refuges.

Kevin T. Karlson

Kevin Karlson is a wildlife photographer who specializes in birds. He has countless images representing most of the major bird families in North America. Kevin has co-authored a comprehensive volume called "The Shorebird Guide." This innovative work presents a different approach to field identification, using various impressions for initial field study.

Margo Pellegrino

Margo Pellegrino, a resident of Burlington County, received national attention in 2007, when she paddled a 20ft. outrigger canoe from Miami, Florida to Camden, Maine. While fighting choppy seas and inclement weather, Pellegrino found time to blog about her journey throughout the eleven weeks. She explains on her blog that she developed the trip in order to reach out to as many people as possible to draw attention to the sorry state of our ocean resources.

Mark and Martha Pokras

Mark and Martha Pokras have come a long way from their humble beginnings as the "bird doctors of the Pines." Today, the Pokrases work at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Medford, Massachusetts.

While many prefer to see Camden County history as a Williamsburg-like domestic tableau of open-hearth cooking, hand-spun wool and docents in tricorner hats, Paul W. Schopp takes a somewhat grimier view of our ancestors' daily world.

Peg Leg John Webb

John Webb, characterized by his one leg, was an Ocean County school teacher who developed an innovative way of testing for ripe and healthy cranberries. He discovered that the best cranberries bounced. Webb would take baskets of fresh berries and roll them down a flight of wooden stairs. The ones that bounced he kept, and the ones that didn't he threw away. His theory is still used today. Although, now cranberry companies have developed more technologically advanced methods and machinery.

Samuel Gordon Giberson

Samuel Gordon Giberson, a memeber of the renowned Giberson family of Ocean County, was well known in the area for his talent on the fiddle. Playing for the Pinelands in the middle 1800s, Giberson was nicknamed by the community, "Fiddler Sammy Buck." He would play at social gatherings and in local taverns.

Ted Gordon is one of the Pine Barrens' leading historians and botanists. In the 1950s, Gordon traveled through the vast Pinelands in search of the area's numerous ghost towns. Gordon has also been a president of the Philadelphia Botanical Society (1988-2000) and a former NJ Pinelands Commissioner. He also works as a research specialist in rare and endangered plant species and leads groups on trips and tours of the Pinelands.

Theodore Corson Wheaton

Early 19th century entrepreneur, Theodore Corson Wheaton founded the TC Wheaton & Co. Glass Works in Millville, NJ. His innovation brought a unique industry to South Jersey and established a legacy of glass artistry and originality. Wheaton's grandson, Frank Hayes Wheaton Jr., developed Wheaton Village from inspiration attributed to his grandfather's work and hometown.

William McCarty

William McCarty was the founder of one the first paper mill in South Jersey and its adjacent town, McCartyville. His Wading River Manufacturing and Canal Company was considered one the most succesful in its time, partly due to McCarty eagerness to try ventures and experiment with different production materials.

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