Henry Charlton Beck

Rev. Henry Charlton Beck (May 26, 1902 – January 16, 1965) was an author, journalist, historian, ordained Episcopal minister and folklorist. He authored six books about New Jersey history, forgotten towns, and regional folklore which were published by E.P. Dutton & Co. and later reprinted by Rutgers University Press. He chronicled vignettes and anecdotal remembrances about such quaint—and often vanished—New Jersey locales as Ong's Hat, Penny Pot, Recklesstown, Apple Pie Hill, Calico, Varmintown, Pickle's Mountain, and Owltown.

"Meaningful names like Shiloh, or Mount Hermon, or Buttermilk Pond stay much longer than those who named them and knew why," he wrote. "Thus I hope always to see, in what there is, at least a wavering shadow of what there used to be." Beck described his curiosity as reflecting "the romance of decadent things." Provided by Wikipedia