We Give Thanks for His Example

     On May 15, 1999, Mr. Clifford Frazee of Forked River died at the age of 78. Cliff was an honorary member of the Forked River Mountain Coalition.

     Cliff was born and died in Forked River. As a school boy, he trapped, fished and hunted and during the "Great Depression", at age sixteen he went to work full-time to help his family. Our Strickler Library taped his experiences in World War II and the war’s effect on Forked River. He won the Purple Heart for his service in the U.S. Navy. Cliff was shipwrecked in the Mediterranean and barely survived on another ship which nearly capsized in a Pacific typhoon. His description of war time rationing in his home town is memorable, too.

     For years, he worked with the State Bureau of Navigation and besides that was an expert bayman who won the Hurley Conklin Award.

     He raised a sizable family and managed to purchase pinelands and cedar swamps. He became a full time tree farmer, for which he won several awards form the State of New Jersey. In June 1998, the New Jersey Conservation Foundation bought one half of his 817 acre tract and he donated the other half; this was recognized at the 1998 Pine Barrens Jamboree at Wells Mills County Park.

     Kerry Jennings, President of the Forked River Mountain Coalition, called him "Lacey’s first environmentalist and last real woodsman." His knowledge of history was an immense help to historians, and anthropologists from the Library of Congress right on down to the local level.

      Cliff knew the woods like the back of his hand and we thank him for sharing his knowledge with us.

     The following article was originally written in October, 1986 by Elizabeth Morgan for the Ocean County Historical Society. It is reprinted here unedited, without changes or revisions.

      For several years, Clifford Frazee of Forked River has told me intriguing stories concerning the Pierce farm about four miles west of the town. It is no longer accessible on the old road from our settlement because of the Garden State Parkway. The thirty five acre farm was an exception in the Russell Tract and Cliff once owned it. He rebuilt the bridge over the North Branch of the Forked River; he says the Collins Causeway was on an old route from town to the Forked River Mountains and was there before the Revolution. I can find it on the Cook-Hopkins Map of 1868. While replacing the bridge, Cliff found horse blinders used to keep the horses from spooking while crossing the narrow bridge with a load of charcoal.

     I don’t see how Cliff hauled a bulldozer over the awful roads to the Pierce property, but Cliff is a tree farmer and a jack of all trades. While he straightened the road, about 1965, he ploughed through an Indian site and found that one arrowhead was carried away for one hundred and fifty feet. Cliff firmly believes the Indians had a farm here. The foot path down to the water and cedar swamp was worn deep. In 1803, a Pierce acquired the land and built a sturdy barn and a house.

     Botanists call most of the large area here xeric (dry), but this part is not like that. When Cliff took me and my eleven year old neighbor, Brian Pfluger, on a rare June day this year, Brian ran ahead and dashed back with a large leaf from an American chestnut. I had never seen a chestnut tree in this whole area before! I was also flabbergasted at the big white oaks as well as the sizable young chestnuts which will probably be killed by the blight. Lush grapevines climbed over trees and shrubs. This was a far cry from the pitch pine and scrub oak forest around it. How did the Indians find this pocket of fertility? This site runs counter to the untrue theory that the Indians came to shore points only, for more and more such sites are rediscovered in the Pine Barrens.

     Cliff showed us where a four foot in diameter chestnut tree died about 1930 and fell forty years later. It was near the barn and house site. There were tall sprouts where it rotted.