{"id":878,"date":"2013-10-04T04:47:40","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T04:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/?page_id=878"},"modified":"2013-10-25T06:28:37","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T06:28:37","slug":"the-remains-of-the-old-spye-inn","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/sample-page\/morgans-people-places\/places\/the-remains-of-the-old-spye-inn\/","title":{"rendered":"The Remains of the Old Spye Inn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morgan Memories \u2013 The Remains of the Old Spye Inn<\/h3>\n
\"OSI<\/a>

Ye Old Spye Inn in December 1976 After the Fire and Before Demolition. Photos Courtesy of Robert Bender.<\/p><\/div>\n

The more I think about what was the essence of Morgan, as I knew it from my time growing up there, the more I think it was the Old Spye Inn.\u00a0 Combined with what I have learned in my now over five years of research, it appears that Morgan \u201cstarted\u201d in the area right around where the Old Spye Inn was located.\u00a0 In its original configuration, Cheesequake Creek emptied into Raritan Bay a few hundred feet away to the east.\u00a0 To the west was where Crossways \/ Back Creek emptied into Cheesequake Creek from present day Oak Tree Village.\u00a0 It was and still is between the site of the Old Spye Inn, and the bluff immediately next to it, where what is now Old Spye Road transitions from Cheesequake Creek\u2019s sea level elevation to the 30 to 40ish feet of elevation at the top of the road in front of the Morgan Fire House.\u00a0 For many decades until the 1926 opening of what is now the north bound lanes of present day Route 35, the main pathway from all points north to the shore lines of Monmouth County, indeed all of the Jersey Shore from Sandy Hook south, ran right past the Old Spye Inn.\u00a0 With immediate access to a sheltered area right next to the mouth of Cheesequake Creek, the most logical place to put a building was right where the Old Spye Inn was located.\u00a0 If it wasn\u2019t the first building in Morgan, at the time of its sad destruction in 1976\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0it certainly was<\/span>\u00a0the oldest.<\/span><\/p>\n

This posting doesn\u2019t contain \u2013 still \u2013 the definitive history of the Old Spye Inn.\u00a0 I still don\u2019t feel like I have accumulated a sufficient amount of factual<\/span> information about this beloved structure.\u00a0 I did manage to acquire a copy of the 1975 book by Stanley L. Wojcik about The Old Spye Inn but still don\u2019t want to read it until I feel comfortable being able to differentiate\u00a0 the fact from the fiction I assume it contains.\u00a0 Kids in the neighborhood during my time there had known and passed down the name Abe Mussey as being the name of the spy for whom the building was eventually named.\u00a0 We heard he had been hung on a tree next to the Inn.\u00a0 We heard he had been doing some form of signaling to British ships in Raritan Bay when he was caught.\u00a0 What he was signaling, who caught him, what form of trial \u2013 if any \u2013 occurred, who was the judge, was there a jury, did he actually do what he was accused of, what was the date, how old was he, where was he from, and many other specific questions remain to be answered.\u00a0 Hopefully we\u2019ll be able to eventually find this out.\u00a0 I still have not found any records of this event.<\/p>\n

\"OSI<\/a>

Ye Old Spye Inn in December 1976 After the Fire and Before Demolition. Photos Courtesy of Robert Bender.<\/p><\/div>\n

When it actually became known as Ye Old Spye Inn vs. whatever it had been known as previously, when it was built, whether it was actually was the Morgan family that built it originally or the Applegate Family \u2013 and when \u2013 I don\u2019t yet have confirming documentation.\u00a0 Of the on-line research I have thus far accumulated, the most interesting web site to read is <\/span>New Jersey History\u2019s Mysteries<\/a>.\u00a0 No doubt some of the information contained in it is true and I already know that some of it isn\u2019t accurate but the real challenge is in knowing which is which.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The December 1976 photos contained in this posting are brought you courtesy of Mr. Robert Bender.\u00a0 Mr. Bender, a longtime resident of the Morgan area, sent me three very faded slides taken by his father containing the originals of the images in this posting.\u00a0 Mr. Bender also recalled finding mortar shells at the Samsel School sight on Ernston Road near the Sayrewoods Shopping Center as well as the building of the Sayrewoods Shopping Center.\u00a0 At the time the shopping center was built, Route 9 was only a one lane road each way. Mrs. Bender is from Morgan and remembers the graves in the Morgan Family cemetery as well as the old chicken farms.\u00a0 I am enormously grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Bender for sharing their Morgan memories and artifacts with all of us so they could have been posted on this web site.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been hearding what I hope to be only rumors regarding the possible paving of Old Spye Road with asphalt.\u00a0 That would be truly sad \u2013 at least for me.<\/p>\n

\"OSI<\/a>

Ye Old Spye Inn in December 1976 After the Fire and Before Demolition. Photos Courtesy of Robert Bender.<\/p><\/div>\n

Originally posted on December 18, 2011.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morgan Memories \u2013 The Remains of the Old Spye Inn The more I think about what was the essence of Morgan, as I knew it from my time growing up there, the more I think it was the Old Spye Inn.\u00a0 Combined with what I have learned in my now over five years of research, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":979,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-878","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/878\/revisions\/879"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}