Pomona Fruit Company

Detail of the 1885 map showing the lake as a cranberry bog.
Detail of the 1885 map showing the lake as a cranberry bog.
Cranberry pickers in the early 1900s at a nearby South Jersey farm. (Courtesy of 淫性视频 Special Collections.)
Cranberry pickers in the early 1900s at a nearby South Jersey farm. (Courtesy of 淫性视频 Special Collections.)

Lake Fred began its life in 1774 as a mill pond, although sometime before 1885, the old mill pond was converted into a cranberry bog. There are hints that indicate this change is a couple of decades older than that, which would make it among the earliest bogs in New Jersey.

In the year 1900, George E. Gossler and Andrew Jackson (A.J.) Rider formed a partnership and established the Pomona Fruit Company. The Pomona Fruit Company owned three separate bogs, Lake Fred and two others situated along the Wading River in Burlington County. Rider was one of the best-known and respected men in the cranberry industry, widely referred to as the 鈥淐ranberry King,鈥 a name reportedly bestowed upon him by the Queen of England after he introduced better ways to prepare the fruit in recipes to the royal family. He owned many cranberry bogs in both Atlantic and Burlington counties and served as president of the New Jersey Cranberry Growers Association.

Rider owned the bog at Lake Fred until his death in 1929. Gossler continued with the operation until his death in 1940. After Gossler鈥檚 death, the Pomona Fruit company sold the property, which was then developed for recreational purposes.

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