Team Bintliff Celebrates Lena Blackburne's legacy in Palmyra

May 3, 2009 - PRLog -- PALMYRA, NEW JERSEY  - This year on Broad Street in Palmyra, during the town’s annual Festival celebration if you stopped by the soggy little caravan tent in front of Anthony’s Jewelers, you would have found members of the Palmyra Historical Society huddled in their “Got History” baseball jerseys, handing out “Lena Blackburne Memorial Diamond “ buttons and trying not to step on the youngsters and parents who crammed the tent to try their luck sifting through mounds of sand at the groups 6th annual Gem Dig fundraiser.

Directly on the heels of the Borough’s acceptance of the group’s proposal to dedicate the baseball field in honor of Lena Blackburne on April 4th, the rain soaked group was treated when Jim Bintliff of Delran, New Jersey stopped by the table. Jim is president of the “LENA BLACKBURNE RUBBING MUD COMPANY” and carries on Blackburne’s legacy supplying Major League Baseball and Little Leagues around the world with mud he secretly harvests every year near Palmyra where Lena Blackburne first discovered it.

Blackburne was a 68 year resident of Palmyra who devoted 47 years of his life to baseball, watermarked by the discovery of the magic mud in a Delaware river tributary that changed the game of baseball

Seen in the photo    with Jim Bintliff (3rd from left) is the Palmyra Historical Society’s starting lineup,  (from L to R) Carol Reiner, Will Valentino, Jim Bintliff, Gen Lumia,Jim May and Joe Wojie. Jim is a true gentlemen of the diamond and afterwards was joined by Historical Society trustee Will Valentino in Palmyra’s Borough Hall to view the Lena Blackburne exhibit where Bintliff was pleased to discover his grandfather John Haas in a 1916 photo with Blackburne taken in Memorial Park at Cinnaminson and Parry in Palmyra. Jim loved the idea of the field being named in Blackburne’s honor and remarked that Blackburne himself would be very proud because he always worked with the kids and cared a lot about them.

Bintliff inherited the famous rubbing mud business from his father Burns Bintliff, who was the son in law of John Haas, a close childhood friend of Lena Blackburne, to whom he entrusted his muddy cottage industry to after his death in 1968.

Today, Bintliff carries on Blackburne’s tradition and exclusively supplies major league baseball with the Burlington County New Jersey mud.

The Palmyra Historical Society was originally founded in 1991 has also been responsible for initiating the proposal of Palmyra Cove Nature Reserve and placing the Spring Garden school complex in Palmyra on the National Historic Register.

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The Palmyra Historical & Cultural Society is a small group dedicated to preserving history of this small town in Burlington County, NJ. The group is interested in donation of artifacts and memoriblia and old photographs. Go to www.boroughofpalmyra.com for more info under "community".