Document B.42 · map · transcription: partial
Manuscript map of the Long Hill ridge, Revolutionary period (provenance unidentified) — a “Wind Mill” is labelled on the eastern slope, and a NAME-SHAPED LABEL sits with it inside the same marked oval.
- repository
- UNKNOWN — see coverage.the_provenance_is_the_central_problem.
- collection
- A north-up hand-drawn manuscript map; hatched-ridge convention; period spelling “Pasaic”.
What is transcribed: The central labels. Most of the sheet is untranscribed.
People named
| As written | Role | Identified as | What this document says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel Cooper Sr | referenced | Daniel Cooper Sr 1695–1795 unproven |
What this document records
The wind mill label has a companion label
CORRECTED 2026-09-02. The entry stated flatly that “the map itself does NOT identify the windmill's owner by name.” That is wrong as written. A pencil oval on the sheet encloses TWO lines: the lower reads “Wind Mill” clearly; the upper is a separate word of roughly six letters, in the same hand, shaped like a surname and ending in a flourish. It is [illegible] in this reproduction. At 12× the strokes are a merged toner mass — the limit is the copy, not the magnification, exactly as at [A.143]. No reading is offered, and “Cooper” is NOT claimed. A further name-shaped label sits just above the oval, also unread. The correct statement is: a name-shaped label is paired with the Wind Mill label and has never been read — which turns a closed question into an acquisition target.
The provenance is the central problem
PROVENANCE UNKNOWN, AND THAT IS THE ENTRY'S CENTRAL LIMIT. The maintainer's note (2026-05-08) is “I have it … but don't know where it came from”; the file is dated 5 August 2008 on disk. An unprovenanced image cannot be cited as a source — it can only be described. Stylistic features suggest a published reproduction rather than a direct archival scan: hatched-ridge convention, the period spelling “Pasaic”, and horizontal photocopy banding across the whole sheet. Candidate origins named in the body remain candidates.
What it does and does not corroborate
The sheet shows a “Wind Mill” on the Long Hill ridge in a Revolutionary-period hand — which is the first cartographic sighting in the catalog of the structure behind the family tradition worked at [pr.7]. But an unprovenanced, undated photocopy corroborates nothing at source grade. Its value is as a pointer to an original, not as evidence.
The other labels
“Long Hill” along the hatched ridge; “Pasaic” along the meandering river to the west. Several further labels are partly legible only — “Wagstaff's[?]” or “Wadsworth's[?]”, and a settlement label at top centre.
Transcription and notes
A correction and a find in one: the entry said the map does not name the windmill's owner. A pencil oval on the sheet encloses two labels — Wind Mill, and above it a name-shaped word that is illegible in this reproduction. Cooper is not claimed.
Provenance, the 5×/12× re-read, and what an unprovenanced photocopy can and cannot
corroborate are in the source: and coverage: headers and are not repeated here.
Data — Visible labels (verbatim, with reading uncertainty notes)
The map is rendered as a north-up hand-drawn manuscript map with hatched-ridge convention along a NE-SW running ridge that bears the label "Long Hill", and a snake-meandering river on the western side labeled "Pasaic" (= Passaic).
Critical label
"Wind Mill" — written in cursive on the eastern slope of the Long Hill ridge, approximately mid-panel.
This is the single most catalog-relevant inscription in the document. It corroborates the family-tradition / Long Hill Township History 1984 / project pr.7 Daniel Sr unsubstantiated notes 2026-05-08.md claim of a Cooper-family windmill on Long Hill at primary-source-cartographic level — though the map itself does NOT identify the windmill's owner by name.
Other visible labels (less central to Cooper-line scope)
- "Long Hill" — written along the spine of the hatched ridge running NE-SW
- "Pasaic" [= Passaic River] — written along the snake-meandering river on the western side of the ridge
- Top right area: "Wagstaff's [?]" or "Wadsworth's [?]" (cursive, partially legible)
- Top center: a settlement/town label, partially legible — possibly "[Ch?]apman's" or similar
- Mid-right: "C. Sullivan" or "Gen Sullivan" — possibly a reference to General John Sullivan's quarters or unit position (cursive, reading uncertain)
- Various small circles/ovals scattered through the panel — possible camp positions, mill ponds, or homesteads (no internal labels legible)
- Top-left corner: oval shape, possibly a pond or military camp marker
Horizontal banding lines visible across the entire image are photocopy / fold-line artifacts, not part of the original manuscript.
Cross-references
- B.41 — Erskine 1777 LoC overview composite (parent style; the 'Cooper's Windmill on Erskine 1777-78 map' claim that B.41 could not test at overview-resolution is now visually corroborated at the detail-sheet level by B.42, BUT the map labels the structure as 'Wind Mill,' not 'Cooper's Wind Mill,' so the OWNER identification remains a hypothesis-not-document claim)
- A.8 — Daniel Cooper Sr's 1791 will (Long Hill resident; doesn't mention windmill explicitly but references "lots of land in the great Swamp" and Long Hill road)
- A.29 — John Cooper of Morristown's 1778 will: "lands and mills on Pusiak [Passaic] River in Morris Co." = primary-source attestation of Cooper-family mills on Passaic River; B.42's "Wind Mill" on Long Hill east slope (which drains to the Passaic Valley) is geographically consistent with A.29's mills
- I.36 House of Cooper 1946 — family-tradition narrative of Cooper mills at Long Hill
- I.46 Munsell 1882 History of Morris County — Daniel Sr Berkeley Tract Long Hill 1732
- B.43 — Passaic Valley Revolutionary War manuscript map (companion sheet from same collection per stylistic match)
- J.33 — Capt. Benjamin Cooper co-bound on Stirling debts 1771-1793 (= Lord Stirling, whose Basking Ridge plantation lies just SW of the area shown in this map)
Caveats and follow-up
- Provenance identification. Without a known source citation, the document's admissibility as primary-source evidence is reduced. Recommend (a) Google reverse-image search and (b) targeted query to Long Hill Township Historical Society (Stirling NJ) or Morris County Historical Society as to whether they publish/digitize this map.
- Owner-identification of the 'Wind Mill'. The map labels the structure but not its owner. The Cooper-family hypothesis depends on (i) Long Hill Township local-history sources naming Daniel Sr / John Cooper of Morristown / Daniel Jr as the windmill operator, (ii) the A.29 John-Cooper-of-Morristown 1778 will referencing "lands and mills on Pusiak River," and (iii) the Long Hill Township History 1984 secondary-source claim (per project
pr.7 Daniel Sr unsubstantiated notes 2026-05-08.md) that 1434 Long Hill Road was the Cooper windmill site. None of these are document-internal to B.42. - Fold-line artifacts. The horizontal banding suggests this image is a photograph of a folded original. A flat, high-resolution scan of the source manuscript would improve label legibility, especially in the top-row (cursive town names) and mid-right ("Sullivan"-like inscription).