History: Burtina Place, Keyport

Burtina Place and Octavia Place, which are located between Green Grove Avenue, Maple Place, Hurley Street and Van Dorn Street in Keyport, are named after the daughters of Burtis Ashburn and Julia Mary (English) Aumack, of Union Beach.

Burtis was born 2 May 1892 in Raritan Township, NJ and died in Mar 1973 in North Brunswick, NJ. He was a furniture salesman in the 1920, 1930 and 1940 enumerations of the US Census.

Julia was born 25 May 1892, also in Raritan Township, and died 6 Sep 1960 in Newark, NJ. She was a public school teacher for 42 years in Monmouth County, 20 years in Union Beach, including as a principal.  She married Burtis in 1913 and had two daughters before 1920. (See Julia's obituary in the 15 Sep 1960 edition of The Matawan Journal (pg 3, cols 1-2.)

A neighbor told me that Burtis Aumack built a small neighborhood in Keyport in 1933 and named two of the new streets after his kids. Real estate listings and local papers indicate that development began in 1929 and continued through the 1930s and 1940s into the early 1950s. *

I'm unclear how a furniture salesman ended up building homes, but Burtis was certainly well respected in the area: he served on a police committee that was established when the Borough of Union Beach was established in 1925, according to an online borough police department history. (Perhaps there is a "construction" connection in the fact that Burtis was on "Strother's Builders" bowling team, as recorded in the 5 Feb 1953 edition of The Matawan Journal?)

The Union Beach Board of Education named Julia as Acting Principal of the Florence Avenue School, according to the 19 May 1955 edition of The Matawan Journal.

Burtis and his wife traveled from New York to Southampton, England in July 1938 aboard the S S Normandie and returned from Le Havre, France to New York in August 1938 aboard the S S Ile de France. (It was during August 1938 that Britain's Neville Chamberlain sent an emissary to Czechoslovakia to seek a resolution to the Sudeten Crisis. Chamberlain himself met with Adolf Hitler in September 1938 and ceded the land to Germany, in an attempt to appease Hitler. The beginning of the Second World War loomed - a dangerous time to take a vacation.)

As for the girls for whom the streets were named: Burtina Mae Aumack attended West Chester Teachers College in the mid 1930s and worked for years as a teacher. Like her mother, Burtina was enumerated as a public school teacher in the 1940 Federal Census. She was mentioned as working at Keyport High School in school yearbooks from the late 1950s and early 1960s, and again in the Red Bank Register in September 1963. She retired with a pension from the Keyport Board of Education in January 1980. Burtina was married to Captain George W Parcels, commander, New Jersey State Police Patrol, Garden State Parkway, according to the 23 Sep 1963 edition of The Red Bank Register (pg 3 col 5).

Her sister, Octavia (Aumack) Mahawage made several sea voyages to South America, served in education adminitration, and died in Columbus, Ohio in August 1990.

Julia Aumack's brother, Eugene V English, was killed in an automobile accident on Route 35 in Holmdel, according to the 19 Jul 1945 edition of The Matawan Journal. Burtina Parcels' son Burt was also killed in a car crash, just 3 years ago. (See 7 May 2010 edition of the Barnstable Patriot)

I found the following references to Burtina Place in The Matawan Journal beginning in 1945 and Octavia Place in 1951.

• Mr and Mrs Joseph Shumock, of 3 Burtina Place, were the proud parents of a newborn daughter, according to the 18 Jan 1945 edition of The Matawan Journal. 
• Mr and Mrs George Boyce, of Burtina Place, were the proud parents of a newborn son, according to the 5 Jul 1945 edition of The Matawan Journal.
• Ms Dorothy Boyce hosted a shower at her home on Burtina Place, according to the 6 Sep 1945 edition of The Matawan Journal.
• George Raymond Boyce, son of Mr and Mrs George E Boyce, of Burtina Place, was engaged, according to an announcement in the 13 Jun 1946 edition of The Matawan Journal.
• Mrs Joseph Shumock and her children Harold and Judy, of Burtina Place; William Conway, of Green Grove Avenue; and Mrs Peter TenEyck of Matawan were visiting Mrs Shumock's and Mrs TenEyck's relatives in LaBelle, Missouri, according to the 31 Jul 1947 edition of The Matawan Journal.
• Mr and Mrs Vanderbilt Boyce, of Burtina Place, were the proud parents of a newborn daughter, according to the 13 Oct 1949 edition of the Matawan Journal.
• Mr and Mrs Charles Herriger, Jr, 5 Octavia Place, were the proud parents of a newborn daughter, according to the 28 Jun 1951 edition of The Matawan Journal.

* Land records show 3 and 8 Burtina PL were built in 1929; 1 Burtina PL in 1931; 7 Burtina PL in 1951. 3 Octavia PL was built in 1948; 4 Octavia PL in 1951; 10 Octavia PL in 1953; 9 Octavia PL in 1989.