A Visit to Ong's Hat, New Jersey

Last month I had an engagement requiring my driving to Philadelphia, and on the way home I took a detour off the New Jersey Turnpike to revisit the first (but not only) place named after a family member, Ong's Hat, located on the western edge of the Pine Barrens of central New Jersey.  If you're looking for it yourself, you can enter 794 Magnolia Road, Southampton Township, NJ 08088 into your navigation and you're on your way!

The nearest town is Buddtown, and the road from Buddtown to the southeast is called "Ong's Hat Road" which joins Magnolia Road about a half a mile west of Ong's Hat itself and the road signs and mailboxes along the way are the only opportunities to see "Ong's Hat" in writing.

Ong's Hat is described in its Wikipedia entry as a ghost town, which is not strictly speaking true since there are about four or five houses there, as evidenced by the mailboxes at the end of short dirt road angling off of Magnolia Road which is Ong's Hat's principal - and only - street.

There are a couple of abandoned commercial buildings on the main road.  The larger one was once a restaurant, and was called "Ong's Hat Tavern" when I first discovered the hamlet in the 1980's.  (My wife and I ate there and bought a tee-shirt emblazoned with "Let's Go To The Hat" together with a picture of a dancing/smiling top hat.)

The historical origins of Ong's Hat are obscure and debated.  The place name is certainly found on various 18th century New Jersey maps, and the Ong family did live in this county starting in the late 17th century.  This exchange from the New York Times on June 30, 1968 illustrates the two extremes of the story:

To The Editor:

In his review (May 12) of "The Pine Barrens" by John McPhee, Earl Schenck Miers repeats an old and erroneous fable.  As a member of the Ong family I would like to say that the town of Ong's Hat is a misnomer.  The Ongs were Quakers and settled in Little Egg Harbor, Burlington County, N.J., early in the 17th century.  They were down at the shore and had to take their grain up to Burlington to be ground by bagging it and slinging the bags over the backs of their horses.  Half way to Burlington they stopped overnight to break the journey and built a small shelter at what is now Ong's Hat but was actually Ong's Hut.

Ross K. Cook

East Orange, N.J.

Mr. Miers replies:

According to the late Fr. Henry Charlton Beck, whose "Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey" was first published by E.P Dutton in 1936 and reissued by the Rutgers University Press in 1961, the legend of Ong's Hat was well founded.  Indeed, it was a shining topper that the maid trampled and flung into a tree, if Father Beck can be trusted, which gave notoriety to the tale.  Otherwise, Ong's Hat was known for its secret prize fights and the murder of a Polish woman, whose skull sat for years in the office of the sheriff of Burlington County to remind him that he had not solved this murder.  When Father Beck found the Ongs, most of them lived near Tuckerton, and were probably carried there by the mosquitoes that infest the country around Little Egg Harbor.

Mr. Cook was the foremost Ong genealogist of his generation, so I tend to believe his version which I know fits with the facts.  But Ong's Hat has been long associated with myths, legends and mystery, and in addition to the many variations of Jacob Ong's hat somehow being stuck in a tree, the small settlement has also inspired various works of contemporary fiction.  There is even a small sub-industry of space- and time-travel stories based in Ong's Hat on the internet.



So while there is not much to see or do in the actual Ong's Hat, the virtual Ong's Hat is vast and full of opportunities for discovery.  You can start exploring the weird and wonderful on-line world of Ong's Hat yourself through these links:

From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong's_Hat,_New_Jersey

Also from Wikipedia, but about the Ong's Hat internet conspiracy stories:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong's_Hat

From NJPineBarrens.com:
http://www.njpinebarrens.com/a-hat-a-hut-or-a-tavern-the-tale-of-ongs-hat/

From Weird NJ website:

http://weirdnj.com/stories/ongs-hat/

From Hidden NJ website:
http://www.hiddennj.com/2011/05/traveling-into-vortex-of-ongs-hat.html

There is even an Ong's Hat Band:
http://www.ongshatmusic.com/

David Eugene Ong (16 August 1943 - 25 April 2015)

A distinguished cousin has passed away.  RIP.

From the Elkhart (IN) Truth (http://www.elkharttruth.com/obituaries/2015/05/13/David-E-Ong.html):

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Dr. David Eugene Ong, 71, of Nashville, passed away due to cancer the morning of April 25 in his home.

He was born Aug. 16, 1943, in Elkhart, Ind.

He graduated from Elkhart High School in Elkhart. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Wabash College in 1965, where he graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Yale University in 1970.

David was best known as a scientist in the biochemistry department at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine from 1970 until 2008. Together with his mentor, Frank Chytil, they served to change our understanding of vitamin A. The discovery of cellular binding proteins for retinol and retinoic acid (two forms of vitamin A) by Chytil and Ong expanded the importance of this vitamin and revolutionized our understanding of its true roles. Dr. Ong and Dr. Chytil shared the prestigious Osborne and Mendel Award from the American Institute of Nutrition in 1983.

David continued to work in the study of vitamin A function throughout his career and was considered to be one of the leading authorities in this field. He published widely and was in demand as a speaker internationally. He always challenged dogma and loved to approach research using lateral thinking and taught others to do the same.

David had many friends, especially in academia and the music industry. He was truly a renaissance man. He was an amateur photographer, videographer and painter. He was also a collector of art and sculpture. He enjoyed gardening and grew many Bonsai trees. His Bonsai trees were his living sculptures. He enjoyed woodworking and was very creative in his constructions. He loved games and had a nine-foot pool table and seven pinball machines.

David’s favorite avocation was music. He had an extensive collection of vinyl records and CDs that covered early to modern; jazz, gospel, blues, bluegrass and rock ’n’ roll. He had a encyclopedic knowledge of the styles, performers and bands and their history, especially jazz. He loved to attend live performances. Nashville was definitely the perfect town for him.

His charm, compassion, kindness, incredible wit and sense of humor consistently brightened people’s day. He will be missed by all who were fortunate enough to have worked with him, to have been mentored by him and to have been his friend.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Richard Ong and Mary Alice (Glace) Ong of Elkhart, and a brother, Daniel, also of Elkhart. He is survived by his fiancée, Lili Marx of Pittsburgh; his brother, Stephen Ong and wife Teri of Greeley, Colo.; his brother, B. Nelson Ong of New Rochelle, N.Y.; his brother, Page Onge of Nashville; his brother, Kevin Ong and wife Valerie of Elkhart; his sister, Megan Corbridge and husband Bryan of Elkhart; his stepson, John Hauber and wife Lori of Westfield, Ind.; his stepdaughter, Julie Maxham and husband Dave of Florence, S.C.; 17 nephews and nieces; and 21 grandnephews, stepgrandnephews, grandnieces and stepgrandnieces.

A David E. Ong Memorial Scholarship Fund is being set up for students to attend David’s alma mater, Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind.

A memorial celebration of David’s life will be Saturday, May 16, in his home in Nashville. Please contact Page Onge at onge@comcast.net for the location, time and to RSVP.


Vanderbilt University's tribute is here: http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2015/04/david-ong-professor-of-biochmistry-emeritus-dies-at-71/

A visit to Saint Louis University and the Ong Center

On Wednesday I was delighted to spend a day at Saint Louis University as a guest of the Walter J. Ong, S.J, Center for Language, Culture and Media Studies.  I was very graciously hosted by Dr. Sara van den Berg, Professor of English and Director of the Ong Center, and Dr. Jonathan Sawdey, Chairman of the English Department and Walter J. Ong Chair in the Humanities.

The occasion was the latest of annual symposia (the eighth) incorporating the annual Ong Memorial Lecture, and this year's subject, influenced by the events in nearby Ferguson last autumn, was Race and Expression.  The keynote address was given by Dr. Houston Baker, Chancellor's Professor at Vanderbilt University and renowned authority on African American literary criticism and theory.  My family and I had a hand in supporting the Ong Center and the lecture series at the outset and this was my first chance to actually attend an event and get a sense of what was going on at SLU (the insiders say "Sloo"), whether "Ongian" (another localism) or in general.

I missed the morning program in the Pius XII Library as I had meetings with the University's President, Dr. Fred Pestello, and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Michael Barber, S.J.  (The University and College seem to be in able hands!)  But, after a nice lunch in the faculty club, I attended the afternoon session which was held in the Pere Marquette Gallery in the oldest (I think) academic building, DuBourg Hall, next to the College Church (both in the photo at the top).  The Gallery was the original university library, restored for multi-purpose use, and is a beautiful multi-story space.

One panel in the afternoon consisted of undergraduate students in the African American Studies program, and while of course they were still honing their presentational skills, they all came across as thoughtful and smart.  I was impressed.

Father Ong's work was frequently referenced throughout the day, and his image even once made it to the big screen.  I am happy to say that his spirit and academic legacy are alive and well at SLU and I look forward to a return.  I am especially grateful to Sara van den Berg who conceived of the Ong Center and its mission, and whose guidance and direction has clearly been a labor of love and evidence of deep respect for its namesake.

The gateway to All Things Ongian at SLU is here http://www.slu.edu/the-ong-center.

[Added Jan. 2019: SLU's video tribute to Ong's intellectual legacy is here.]

Perhaps St Louis should be the venue of the next Ong Family Reunion?  It certainly is central to the family's far-flung footprint on this continent!

Crossing the Atlantic 386 years ago....

Over the holiday break I am reading John Barry's "Roger Williams and The Creation of the American Soul (Viking, 2012) and re-reading Francis Bremer's "John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father" (OUP, 2003).  Both men are very important to 17th century British American colonial history, and both are linked to the emigration of part of the Ong family (the Lavenham, Suffolk Onges) to America.  John Winthrop was of course the first locally-based Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony and led the original "Great Migration" fleet of about 1000 people to the colony in the summer of 1630.  (From this book I learned that his great-grandfather Adam Winthrop was in fact a Lavenham clothier, and the opening chapter of Bremer's biography reviewing the family's history is titled "From Lavenham to London".)  Roger Williams, an ordained priest of radical Calvinist or "godly" (we would now say Puritan) persuasion and a protégé of the important statesman and jurist Sir Edward Coke (pronounced "Cook"), was the founder in 1636 of the Providence Plantation Colony (which subsequently merged into the Rhode Island Colony), a move necessitated by his expulsion from Massachusetts Bay for doctrinal non-conformity with Winthrop's brand of reformed religion.

Roger Williams sailed to Massachusetts Bay on somewhat short notice as it became clear that there was a high risk of his arrest as a "godly" priest by English ecclesiastical courts under the traditionalist, retro-reform influence of Archbishop William Laud who was trying to end all non-conformity to Anglican Prayer Book-based religious practices by the ordained clergy during the early years of the reign of Charles I (who had even married a Catholic).  So Williams and his wife found themselves booked on a winter trans-Atlantic passage on the "Lyon" departing from Bristol (Gloucestershire in the West of England) on 1 December 1630.  The Lyon's captain William Pierce was a very experienced trans-Atlantic seaman, and the Lyon had been part of the original Winthrop fleet.  Captain Pierce had pledged to Governor Winthrop to return to Boston during the winter of 1631 with provisions for the colony once it became clear that the settlers had arrived too late for plantings in the summer of 1630 and their food supplies would therefore not last through the winter.  The "Lyon" on that winter-rescue voyage also had as passengers the recently widowed Frances Onge with several of her children, accompanied by her late husband's young cousin Francis and his wife.  (Francis and family returned the next year to England allowing Francis to seek a degree at Cambridge University and be ordained into the priesthood.  He served parishes in Essex, and his elder son Francis was noted as "born in New England" when he registered for grammar school in Colchester in 1644.)

Why did the Onges emigrate in the winter rather than participate in the larger migration the previous summer in better weather?  Motivations are guesswork, but the death of Frances' husband Edmund in June 1630 may explain the delay.

It is hard to imagine what this voyage might have been like.  Williams' biographer Barry offers the following narrative:

"The North Atlantic storms most violently in winter, so few ship captains and fewer travelers chose to spend those months upon it.  The storms then were themselves dangerous, and ice made sailor's lives treacherous.  But Pierce, master of the Lyon, had no choice: he knew the desperation of the Bay colony and he had promised Winthrop to return with supplies.  Williams too had no choice but to cross in winter what he later called "the terrible Atlanticke ocean."

"The sea did not disappoint.  Williams and the handful of other passengers - not the hundreds who packed the ships in Winthrop's fleet - endured a "verye tempestuous voyage" to America.  Human and animal smells made life below rank, with little respite, but to go above decks risked one's life.  Mountains of waves broke over the ship, tossing and shaking it.  Great winds coming out of the northeast buffeted it, ice coated the deck itself, icicles hung from the rigging - ice could hang so heavy on the rigging that it could capsize the ship - and the wind drove needles of frozen spray into exposed skin...

"Yet on the Lyon, God was merciful: only a single death occurred, when waves washed a youth overboard in one of the storms (the son of the captain -Ed).  Those on deck, helpless to lower a boat, watched him straining to stay afloat, rising and falling on huge swells for a quarter of an hour before the sea swallowed him.  Finally on February 5, 1631, the ship anchored safe amid great and dangerous ice floes in Boston harbor...

"Winthrop had lived up to his sermon by giving away his personal stores of food, handing the last of it out the same day - but before - the ship was sighted.  Even so, it was not enough.  He reported, "The poorer sorte of people (who laye longe in tentes &c.:) were much afflicted with the Sckirvye, & manye dyed."

"Deaths from scurvy were one things, at least, that the Lyon's arrival could stop.  Sailors already knew citrus juice cured scurvy, so Pierce carried a large store of lemon juice.  He distributed it...

"For this and for the relief from the threat of outright starvation which the other supplies provided, Governor Winthrop and the other magistrates called for a day of prayer and thanksgiving.  The celebration, while deeply felt, was nonetheless muted.  Winter, and hardships, continued.  Those who had built homes lit great fires for warmth, but in several buildings these fires proved too great - the flames escaped the hearth and burned down the home.  Wolves howled outside settlements each night and feasted on cattle; the government offered a bounty for their heads.

"By the time winter ended roughly 40 percent of those who had accompanied Winthrop had either died or returned to England..."

(from Chapter 12 - The New World, "Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul")

But Massachusetts Bay Colony did thrive after this rough start.  The 1631 plantings and subsequent harvest were successful, and other industries (fishing, fur trading, shipbuilding) began to take root.  The mortality rate was still high however.  Frances Onge herself died in 1638, aged 55, when the oldest of the children which had accompanied her, Simon Onge, was 19.  (An older sister, Mary Onge, emigrated to Massachusetts in 1634, and her fate remains a bit of a mystery for another post.)

More on the early Onges to follow, but in the meanwhile the Editor extends best wishes to all friends and family, on either side of the Atlantic, for a Happy 2015.

Excerpts from a medieval Onge will

My "Ong Origins" talk from this past August at the Ong Mini-Reunion quoted a line from the 26 Feb 1439 (Old Style) will of Adam Onge of Barningham.  We are once again fortunate in our origins in that one of the earliest registers of wills by ordinary people to have survived is from western Suffolk, covering the Archdeaconry of Sudbury.  The full text, translated from the original Latin, can be found in "Wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, 1439-1474: Wills from the Register "Baldwyne", Part I", Peter Northeast, ed., Suffolk Records Society, 2001.  I don't have permission to reproduce the text here, but it can be seen on Ancestry.com.   (You can also buy the book on Amazon.)

But I will share a few excerpts to illustrate how different were the concerns of our pre-Reformation ancestors!  The first bequests in the will are:

"To the fabric of Barningham tower beyond what is in the testament 23s 4d.

"To the Friars of Babwell to say and celebrate a trental (mass to be said on day falling 30 days after death -Ed) of St Gregory the pope for my soul and for the souls of my parents and friends 10s.

"To the Friars Preachers of Thetford 3s 4d.

"To the Austin Friars of the same town 3s 4d.

"A hundred masses to be said and celebrated at my seventh day for the health of my soul.

"A man to go to the Roman curia to visit the court of the apostles Peter and Paul there."

Then the will details Adam Onge's various land holdings (over 40 acres) in Barningham to be held by his wife Margaret for the term of her life provided she stays unmarried.  Adam did have a son, William, but he was not so generously treated as a beneficiary to my reading:

"If Margaret my wife do not marry and remains good and chaste then no part of the said tenement to be sold, but to remain whole for her lifetime. After her decease, the land and tenement to be sold and the £40 distributed, and what of the lands and tenement remains unsold to remain to the use of William ONGE my son, to hold to him and his heirs of the chief lords (etc) for ever on condition that he conduct himself well and provide two men to go to the Roman curia and visit the court of the apostles Peter and Paul. If he do not behave well towards his mother he is to have nothing."

Ouch!  But the terms of this will did not uproot the family from the parish since members of the Onge family continued to live in Barningham for another two centuries.

Update (Aug 2018): My cousin and English correspondent, Les Ong, has transcribed the text from the original document.  This text is able to be shared publically and is reproduced below:

Adam ONGE, Barningham, Suffolk.

Will made    31 Jan 1439/40.

Will proven 26 Feb 1439/40.

Archdeaconry of Sudbury.

Testament

To be buried in the parish churchyard of St Andrew the Apostle of Barningham.

A cow of dun colour to go before me on my burial day as a mortuary.

To the fabric of Barningham tower 3s 4d.

To the parish clerk 6d.

To each of my godsons a ewe.

To the nuns of Thetford 4 bushels of wheat.

To the church of All Saints of Stanton 6s 8d and to the church St John the Baptist there 6s 8d.

Residue of all my goods to disposition of executors: Margaret my wife, Bartholomew DRAPER of Thetford and John NONNE of Rougham, with Adam [CAYWEYN?] as recorder.

Will (of same date)

To the fabric of Barningham tower beyond what is in the testament 23s 4d.

To the Friars of Babwell to say and celebrate a trental of St Gregory the pope for my soul and for the souls of my parents and friends 10s.

To the Friars Preachers of Thetford 3s 4d.

To the Austin Friars of the same town 3s 4d.

A hundred masses to be said and celebrated at my seventh day for the health of my soul.

A man to go to the Roman curia to visit the court of the apostles Peter and Paul there.

To each of my executors for his labour 5s.

To Adam [CAYWEN?] 12d.

To Margaret the daughter of John NUNNE and Isabel his wife a tenement called Robynes in Barningham, after the decease of Margaret my wife, to hold to her and her heirs of the chief lords (etc) in perpetuity.

To Margaret my wife all my lands and tenements, pasture (etc) in Barningham for term of her life, committing no waste (etc) provided she remains unmarried. If she marry, as much land and tenements (etc) to be sold as will come to £40, the money to be expended in pious uses for the health of my soul and the souls of my parents and friends, viz. an enclosure of 3 acres 1 rood of land lying under Barningham rectory on the west; an enclosure containing 7 acres of land lately purchased of William WODEWARD at Fustymer; a piece of land of 8^1/2 acres at le Sevenackres; an enclosure containing 1 acre 3 roods of land at Wolsike; 2^1/2 acres of meadow and pasture at Smethemere; 5 acres  1 rood of land and pasture in two pieces in the field called Bellond; ^½ acre of land in a furlong called Baldryes halfakre; 1 acre 3 roods of land in two pieces at Alferismer; one head abutting on the close of Thomas MELLER called Ingham; 12 acres 1^½ roods of land in three pieces in the field called Southfield of which 7 acres is called Longhege; 3 acres 1^½ roods at Petakre and 3 acres at Stanton Way; a piece of land of 1^½ acres at Welleclos; 1 acre 1 rood of land under Aldebrege lately purchased of William WODEWARD; a tenement with the croft lately purchased of Simon {DALYMER?] reckoned at 1 acre 3 roods of land and an enclosure called Southcroft reckoned at 1 acre 3 roods of land. These all to be sold after the death of Margaret my wife and disposed as above.

To Margaret the daughter of John NUNNE 20 ewes, after my death.

If Margaret my wife do not marry and remains good and chaste then no part of the said tenement to be sold, but to remain whole for her lifetime. After her decease, the land and tenement to be sold and the £40 distributed, and what of the lands and tenement remains unsold to remain to the use of William ONGE my son, to hold to him and his heirs of the chief lords (etc) for ever on condition that he conduct himself well and provide two men to go to the Roman curia and visit the court of the apostles Peter and Paul. If he do not behave well towards his mother he is to have nothing.

All my feoffees to [deliver estate?] to my executors.

Seal appended.

Proved in Ixworth parish church 26 February 1439. Admon to Margaret and John executors. Power reserved to Bartholomew DRAPER the other executor when he comes.

Where does "Ong" come from?

This is a question all of us Ongs have heard many, many times.  And as I've written before, the Ongs are English, with known traces of "Onge" found as early as the 13th century.  So we're as English as the Queen, if not more so!

But what does Ong (or Onge) mean? 

There are many theories for the origin of the name. Many are wild and speculative, but the only scholarly etymological source I have seen is by Henry Barber in his "British Family Names" (London 1903).  It has the following entry (my explanations of the abbreviations are indicated by "(=xx)"):

ONG. N (=Old Norse/Icelandic) Ungi (?) (the younger); F (=Frisian)
Onke, dimin. of Onno; G (=German) Unger; Fl (=Flemish) Ongers; p.n.
(=place name) or Ongar; a loc. n; Essex.
It's somewhat speculative, but I prefer the idea that Ong is a Nordic cognate of young or younger.  In fact the modern Danish word for young is "unge" and modern Norwegian for young is "ung".  And given early medieval English history, Nordic or "Viking" sources are pretty likely for an East Anglian family.

Michael Linwood in his history of Barningham, Suffolk, "Our Own People" highlights the early (and long-lasting) association of the Ong family with the village and offers the following observation:

"Inherited names were not customary amongst the ordinary people in Anglo-Saxon times, but the name Ong seems to have Old Norse origins.  It gives rise to the theory that Viking families had been clinging to their Danish origins since they invaded and remained conscious of their individual cultural background."

The Viking influence in eastern and northern England dates from 865 when the "Danes" landed a large army in East Anglia (which includes Suffolk).  By 867 the Danes had conquered the Kingdom or Northumbria with its capital in York and in 869 conquered the Kingdom of East Anglia, defeating King Edmund the Martyr, subsequently enshrined in St Edmundsbury Abbey (in today's Bury St Edmunds, the principal town of West Suffolk).

After conquering most of the central Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia, the Danes were defeated by King Alfred (the "Great") of Wessex in 878, but the subsequent treaty with the Danish leader Guthrum in 880 granted the new Norse settlers self-rule over most of North and Eastern England, known as the "Danelaw".  Norse settlers continued to emigrate to England in this period, although they were quasi-assimilated into Anglo-Saxon society and substantially converted to Christianity.  Viking attempts to re-establish states in England continued until 1075, by which time England had been conquered by the Normans (1066) of Northern France (themselves originally of Norse origin as suggested by their name).

So to be English a thousand years ago could certainly mean living in what we would today call a multi-ethnic culture.  I recently did a DNA test which revealed that my ancestry was 14% "Scandinavian", even though according to family lore and my (wide, but not complete) knowledge of ancestral surnames I have no known Scandinavian ancestors.  Maybe that is where the Ong DNA resides!

Some of my cousins have changed their names from Ong to St.Onge (a corruption of the French province of Saintonge) or DeOng on the assumption that our name was originally French, and a restoration to something more Gallic-sounding would be more accurate (and perhaps less Asian-sounding).  Well there are quite a number of French-Canadian St.Onges out there, but they're no relation to us.  So sorry guys, you're wrong: Say it loud, I'm "Ong" and I'm proud!

Walter Jackson Ong, S.J. (1912-2003)

In my talk at the Ong Family "Mini-Reunion" last month, I referenced several Ong authors of fiction and non-fiction.  Those who attended will recall that my father, John Doyle Ong, in his concluding remarks mentioned that I had somewhat short-changed the importance of Walter J. Ong, the Jesuit scholar whose prominence as a thinker and writer unarguably outshines anyone else in the family past or present (pace my writer-cousins!).

So as penance I offer this post.  There is so much in the public domain about him and his work that I will not attempt a summary of my own, but instead I have assembled this portal into the life and work of Father Ong. 

Enjoy!

A 2018 video tribute by Saint Louis University to Ong's intellectual legacy is here.

A comprehensive bibliography by Prof. Thomas Walsh of Saint Louis University is here.

A 1987 biographical portrait by Prof. Randolph Lumpp is here.

His Wikipedia article is here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_J._Ong

The Walter J. Ong Archive at Saint Louis University is here:  http://libraries.slu.edu/collections/ong

His New York Times obituary is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/25/us/walter-j-ong-90-jesuit-teacher-and-scholar-of-language.html?scp=15&sq=Ong&st=cse

Father Ong was quoted many times in the NYT, one of the later examples is here: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/reading-up-on-gutenberg-as-the-ipad-drops/?_php=true&_type=blogs&scp=379&sq=Ong&st=cse&_r=0

An excellent academic paper on his life and work by Prof. Thomas J. Farrell is here:  http://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-110730320/in-memoriam-walter-j-ong-s-j-1912-2003

Another memorial article by Canadian journalist Jeet Heer is here: http://www.jeetheer.com/culture/ong.htm

John Walter, an archivist at Saint Louis University, has a blog about his work on the Walter Ong Collection here:  http://johnwalter.blogspot.com/

A bibliography is here: http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n50-2997/