|
I am trying to find out what happened to the Sooys' power in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, i.e., Lower Bank, Green Bank, Little Egg Harbor, Pleasant Mills, etc. My grandfather, Norman Fremont Sooy, was orphaned at age 12 in the early 1920's, and he was forced to care for his three siblings singlehandedly. In his memoirs, he states that no one "gave a tinker's ass about what happened to the Sooy kids". The Sooys were once a powerful family in the Pine Barrens community, and I am interested in understanding where, when and how our good fortune reversed. Why is my family so poor when, less than a century ago, we were judges, business owners, ship captains, and elected officials boasting a wealth of property in land and structures throughout the New Jersey Pine Barrens? Did one of our family members incur a large debt that could only be paid by selling property? What forced us to hand over the "Old Homestead", the Sooy Inn, The Green Bank General Store, and the Navigation Company? Why was my grandfather, at age twelve, forced to kill his own breakfast in the town where his parents had raised him?
|
