Oak Grove History

Grave matters:

Nearly 60 years ago, Clifford Holden applied for a job with the OKMAR oil and gas company.

Today, at the age of 90, the Constitution resident still does some work for the Beren family that owned the company, serving as an unofficial caretaker for the Jewish section of Marietta's Oak Grove Cemetery.

"I guess I just have a feeling that I should try to help look after it as long as I'm around," Holden said.

Fifty-eight people are interred in the portion of the cemetery dedicated to Jewish burials, which is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. It is one of two Jewish burial sites in Marietta, whose Jewish population, while never large, has dwindled in recent years.

The smaller graveyard - all but invisible unless one is looking for it specifically - is located off the 1200 block of Cisler Drive. According to records from the Columbus Jewish Historical Society on file at the Washington County Local History and Genealogy Library, there are nine people buried there, although the overgrown vegetation and worn and broken tombstones make it hard to see all of those graves.

Cemeteries were important to Jewish immigrants, said Amy Shevitz, author of the book "Jewish Communities on the Ohio River." In observation of a traditional requirement, many Jews are interred in ground dedicated specifically to Jewish burial.

"One of the first things Jews tend to do when they settle in an area is obtain a cemetery," said Shevitz, who grew up in Marietta and now lives in Phoenix.

A February 1900 newspaper account indicates Marietta's Jewish community was looking for an additional burial site and mentioned Oak Grove as a possibility. It does not indicate where the other site is, although Shevitz's book says the Cisler Drive land was not purchased until 1902.

In the past, the Cisler Drive cemetery was cared for by OKMAR employees, Holden said. According to the Columbus Jewish Historical Society document, it is now under the auspices of the Telshe Yeshiva Rabbinical College in Wickliffe, near Cleveland.

A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said it has been several years since he saw anyone working at the cemetery.

An official with Telshe Yeshiva said he did not have any information about the Cisler Drive cemetery but would look into the matter.

OKMAR eventually moved its operations to Wichita, Kansas, with Holden overseeing wells they owned in West Virginia and looking in on the Jewish plot at the Oak Grove Cemetery.

The Hunt for Red Oak Grove

The name Red Oak Grove, for many, may be unheard of, but for Pine Barrens enthusiasts, it is an enigma bound within Pandora’s Box.  Its only evidence is the remains of several foundation pits, and a name listed on nineteenth century maps.  It is as elusive as it is intriguing.  Chatter abounds on Pine Barrens list-serves about it, and many seem to be the one who knows its full tale.  Often, these are the very same people who have placed their faith in Henry Beck’s accounts of the small village.

Now, I am not one to claim that I know everything there is to know about Red Oak Grove, but I have come a long way in piecing together much of its tale.  There is much still unknown about this area, but first let us begin with those common notions that are accepted and held as fact.

Part of the reason for scant information about Red Oak Grove, is that it disappeared.  Its inhabitants either moved away or died out for one reason or another.  Next, it was not a major hotbed of excitement, but rather a small, quiet rural village situated well away from larger towns.  Further, since it was never incorporated as its own municipal entity, there are few public documents pertaining to its existence.  And finally, since it disappeared more than a century ago, few living inhabitants of this region know anything about the area.

The hunt for this little village has been exhausting, in the sense that it has nearly exhausted every research venue that exists.  However, the search has also been somewhat fruitful.  What follows is incomplete, but is also the most comprehensive and detailed history of this elusive village.

The exact origins of Red Oak Grove are hard to pin down.  The village came into existence sometime around the early to mid 1840s.  It was originally a village of Pemberton Township, Burlington County, New Jersey.  Two of its early inhabitants were a man by the name of Samuel Bryant and his wife Leann.  In 1846 Bryant purchased a large parcel of timber land in Burlington County with a mortgage, built a house and lived there with his wife, this was in the vicinity now known as Red Oak Grove. [1] Whether there were many others living nearby is unknown as there are few documents pertaining to this area.  However, this was not Bryant’s only property; he also owned several acres of a development on the Pole Bridge Stream, near Mt. Misery. [2]

April 10, 1851 marked the earliest known “official” record for Red Oak Grove as Samuel Bryant applied to establish a Post Office at his home. [3] This post office was listed in several National and State gazetteers as located in Burlington County, New Jersey.[4]  On March 26, 1855 the Red Oak Grove post office of Burlington County was officially closed;[5.] and, in 1856 Bryant’s mortgage for Red Oak Grove was foreclosed upon.[6]  He died in 1857 and his property was divided and sold to several individuals.  One portion was sold to William Irick[7], a founding executive of the Medford Bank and owner of numerous sawmills and lumber tracts; another portion was sold to Lewis Neill,[8] a fire-brick maker from Philadelphia, and later a portion of the same estate was sold to Andrew McCall,[9] Methodist Minister and manager of Neill’s brick works.

Oak Grove history

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