USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. I > Part 26
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The county is curiously irregular in its geographical outlines. The major part of its acreage is contained within a resemblance to a parallelo- gram lying east of a line projected southward from the extreme north- cast corner of the county on Raritan Bay and terminating at the Ocean County line-an area approximately twenty-five miles in length, and fif- teen miles in width from the inland point on the line described, eastward to the ocean. The remainder of the territory of the county is comprised in an irregular parallelogram extending southwestwardly from the west side of the first parallelogram, having an approximate length of twenty- three miles, and a width varying from eight to ten miles.
The land surface is uneven, but there are no very great elevations, and, generally speaking, from the standpoint of an agriculturist, but a small proportion of it is impracticable for farming. The geological for- mation is largely cretaceous, and in the plastic clay beds have been found many organic remains. These have not been restricted to vegetable speci- mens. Fragmentary remains of great saurians have been found, and, in
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
a few instances, almost complete skeletons. The best specimens have found their way to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, but there are many in the museum of Rutgers College and in the hands of private collectors. In the so-called drift deposits have been found remains of various great animals, such as the reindeer and walrus.
The county has been an extremely interesting field for archaeologists, and, covering this line of research, interesting reports have been made to the Smithsonian Institution and other scientific bodies by Dr. Rau and Dr. Lockwood. Besides the ordinary hunting and domestic implements . and utensils of the Indian, there have been frequent finds of fragments of stone implements and pottery, some of which have been ascribed to an earlier age than that of the Indian known to our history.
The story of the peopling of Monmouth county, of the development of its material resources, of the sowing of seed from which sprang the institutions of religion and education, of the foundation laying of the prin- ciples of local self-government and law, of the defence of the liberties of the people-all this is told in other chapters devoted to some of these in- dividual topics, and in connection with the local history of the towns and villages which were the scene of momentous events. It is only to be pre- mised here that, from the first settlement, Monmouth county was an asy- lum for men and women who craved liberty to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, and that, when they came to occupy the soil, the aboriginal owners were ready sellers, and received what was, in those times and under existing conditions, a reasonable equivalent. It is also to be borne in mind that the immigrants had no idea that they were inaking land speculations ; their prescience did not comprehend the tremend- ons development which was to follow their coming; their entire expecta- tion for the future was bounded by their immediate ambition-that of home making.
The history of the county as a political division may be said to have been begun in the year 1665, when civil order was provided for under the crown concessions. Under the Nicolls patent the people of the "two towns of Navesink" (Shrewsbury and Middletown) performed the functions of government through a general assembly comprising the patentees, asso- ciates and general deputies, which held its sessions at various times at each of the places named, and later at Portland Point. That this body was at once a prototype of the town meeting and board of freeholders of later days, is evident from proceedings had at a session held at Shrewsbury, December 14, 1667, where and when measures were adopted regulating debate in such meetings, and providing for elections to be held by the in- habitants. This body also acted in the capacity of a court.
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Political autonomy was recognized November 13, 1675, when the As- sembly passed an act with reference to the territory in what afterward be- came Monmouth county, providing that the "two towns of Nevysink" (Shrewsbury and Middletown) be made a county, which county was desig- nated as the "County of Nevysink," although in a few instances it is re- ferred to as the "County of Middletown."
By act of the Assembly passed in March, 1683, the four counties of Bergen, Essex, Middlesex and Monmouth were created and their bounds were prescribed. By the terms of this enactment Monmouth county was to begin at the western bounds of Middlesex county, and to extend west- ward, southward and northward "to the extreme bounds of the province." In this connection it is to be noted that Monmouth county received its name at the suggestion of Lewis Morris, Surveyor-General of the province, who thus commemorated his native county, Monmouthshire, in England.
Various later designations of boundary lines were made to remedy the confusion arising from original vague description. In 1709-10 an act was passed defining the boundary line between the counties of Middle- sex and Monmouth, and another for the same purpose (including the coun- ty of Somerset) was passed in 1713-14, but it does not appear that Mon- mouth county was materially affected. In 1844 a part of Middlesex county (a portion of the township of Monroe) was attached to Monmouth county. In the following year this territory was restored to Middlesex county, but three years later a small portion of Middlesex county was again de- tached, to become a part of Millstone township, in Monmouth county. The southern boundary line of Monmouth county was fixed from the first, being the province line established by George Keith, Surveyor-Gen- eral, in 1687.
In 1693 were formed the three original townships of Monmouth coun- ty-Middletown, Shrewsbury and Freehold. Middletown included the presents townships of Raritan, Holmdel and Matawan, and a portion of Atlantic township; Shrewsbury included the present townships of Howell, Wall, Eatontown and Neptune, nearly all of Ocean township, all of Oceanl county, and a part of Atlantic county.
Some time about 1730 the township of Upper Freehold was formed out of parts of the townships of Freehold and Shrewsbury, a part of what is now the township of Millstone, in Monmouth county, and a large por- tion of the present Ocean county.
In 1749 the township of Stafford was created, its territory being detached from Shrewsbury township, south of Barnegat Inlet, and in 1767 the township of Dover was also created out of Shrewsbury township. Both these detachments are now included in Ocean county.
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
In 1801 Howell township was formed by detachment from Shrews- bury township. At its creation it included, in addition to its present ter- ritory, that which afterward ( 1851) became Wail township, and a north- ern portion of Ocean county.
In 1844 the township of Millstone was created out of portions of ยท Freehold and Upper Freehold townships in Monmouth county. The lat- ter detachment necessitated subsequent re-adjustments.
In the same year (1844) the township of Jackson was created out of Freehold, Upper Freehold and Dover townships; this is now comprised in Ocean county, as are the former Monmouth county townships of Plum- sted and Union, respectively created in 1845 and 1846.
The township of Atlantic was formed in 1847 out of territory taken from the townships of Freehold, Shrewsbury and Middletown. In 1848 Raritan township was formed by detachment from the township of Mid- dletown, and territory was taken from the township of Freehold to form the townships of Marlborough and Manalapan.
In 1849 Ocean township, which included the present township of Neptune, (created 1879), and the greater part of the present township of Eatontown, (created 1873), was formed out of a part of Shrewsbury township.
In 1857 Matawan and Holmdel townships were formed out of terri- tory taken from Raritan township. In 1867 the township of Lincoln was created, its territory taken from. Ocean township, but the act of creation was repealed in the following year.
November 16, 1790, the legislature of New Jersey ceded to the United States its jurisdiction in and over four acres of land at the point of Sandy Hook, on which were situated the lighthouse and other buildings.
By act of the legislature, February 15, 1850, the southern portion of Monmouth county, comprising the greater part of its territory, was detached and created a county under the name of Ocean county.
In 1890 the population of Monmouth county was 69,128, and in 1900' it was returned at 82,057, the increase of 18.7 per cent. being due almost entirely to the increased attractiveness and development of the shore towns.
Burlington county comes next in point of age, dating from 1694, but its original limits were reduced in 1710 by the formation of Hunterdon county, which made the Assunpink (running through the city of Trenton) its northern boundary. It is the only county that reaches across the width of the State, yet it does not reach the ocean except by the legal fiction which projects a land boundary into adjacent waters, for in 1890 it lost
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a part of its ocean front, when Little Egg Harbor township was annexed to Ocean county, and it was left with only one township that entitles it to a place in a work dealing with the coast-that of Bass River.
Burlington has not flourished during recent years as have many of its neighbors. It and Hunterdon were the two counties in New Jersey that showed a decrease in population in the census figures of 1900. Bass River township felt the same decay ; it reported a population of 853 in 1890 and 800 in 1900. It has some manufactures, but most of the people are engaged in agriculture or fishing. New Gretna, the principal village of Burlington county, is a somewhat scattered place, well supplied with schools and churches. The township was first settled in 1713 by John Mathis and two others. Mathis in a short time bought out his associates, and continued to clear his property so as to make it available for farm purposes, and it is said by local antiquaries that most of the old families in the vicinity are descended from him. The future development of Bass River would seem to depend upon the progress of its manufacturing in- dustries. It has ample water power, and for milling purposes is excelled by no place on the coast.
Ocean county, the second of the four seaboard counties, lies imme- diately south of Monmouth county. Its coast line is longer than that of any other county, reaching more than forty miles from Manasquan Inlet, which separates it from Monmouth county, to Little Egg Harbor Inlet. Its coast line is a long slender thread of sand-upon which, however, are planted many thrifty villages and pleasant resorts-and behind this, sepa- rating it from the main land, ebb and flow the waters of Barnegat Bay, the southern portion of which is known as Little Egg Harbor, or Tucker- ton Bay. Trending southeasterly in the northern part of the county is the Metedeconk River, which empties expansively into a considerable body near the northern boundary. The principal stream, however, is Toms River, which rises well westwardly in the northern part of the county, in close proximity to the Monmouth county line, and pursues a southeasteriy. course to where it reaches Barnegat Bay, expanding in its last few miles into harbor-like width. Many smaller streams throughout the county afford excellent water power for numerous industries.
The county is almost triangular in shape, its apex touching on Little Egg Harbor. Its area is larger than that of any other of the twenty- one counties in the State, yet it is, notwithstanding this fact, the most sparsely populated of them all, Cape May alone excepted. At the time of its creation the county numbered 10,032 inhabitants, and forty years later this had not doubled, being 19,474 in 1900. It lies in the pine belt, in what
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geologists designate as the tertiary sand and gravel plain. The county has 7,332 acres of beach land, 72,681 acres under water, 40,400 acres of tide or salt marsh, and 360,171 acres of upland. Of the upland only 47,084 acres are cleared, the remaining 313,080 acres being woodland. This means that less than ten per cent. of the acreage is cleared upland, nearly sixty-five per cent. is uncleared woodland and fifteen per cent. is under water. The northern portion of the county contains considerable fertile farming land. The southern portion is pine barrens, but except in the very swamps is susceptible to cultivation and will bear vegetables and small fruits. The swamps, too, have their value, much of this area having been cleared and put into cranberry bogs, with the result that the county pro- duces more than one-half the total cranberry crop of the State.
The first comers found Indians, and evidences of their villages yet exist in various localities. In 1802, when the last land cession was made to the whites, they reserved the right to hunt, fish and cut basket wood on the unoccupied land which they had sold. One of the Indians, however, Elisha Ashatama, absolutely refused to depart with his tribe, and, while he lived a somewhat vagrant life, he continued to make his home (in-so- far as he had one) at Tuckerton. He served on the U. S. frigate "Chesa- peake" during the war with Great Britain in 1812, and was drowned in the Mullica River during a fit of intoxication, about 1833 or 1834. He was buried in the old Methodist cemetery at Tuckerton.
The earliest comers to this region were undoubtedly fishermen, whose precarious calling and nomadic habits scarcely entitled them to be classed as settlers. The first actual land occupant, as shown by the records, was Henry Jacobs Falkinburg (or Henrie Jacobsen Falconbre, as it sometimes appears) a native of Schleswig-Holstein, who acquired a tract of eight hundred acres from the Proprietors, February 7, 1698. He was a use- ful man, and acted as interpreter between the English and the Indians in their land dealings. He was followed by Edward and Mordecai Andrews, who were Quakers from Oyster Bay, Long Island, where they appear to have been born. Edward Andrews built a grist mill in 1704 at what after- ward became the town of Tuckerton, and in 1704 he established a Friends' Meeting, and he built a house of worship for his sect. Jacob Ong also took up land at Egg Harbor in 1698, and between that year and 1716 other settlers were Thomas Ridgway, Richard Osborn, Roger Osborn, John Mathis, Joseph Wilitts, Ive Belangee, William Birdsall and Robert Allen. About 1720 Jarvis Pharo settled at West Creek, and Thomas Tow is re- corded as living at Barnegat in the same year. In 1737 a society of Rogerine (or Quaker) Baptists settled at what is now known as Ware- town.
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It was not, however, until about 1740 that the real settlement of the county began. In that year numerous tracts of land began to be taken up, as is evidenced by records of purchases from the Proprietors and surveys. Saw mills (the first had been set up by Anthony Woodward and Edward Beakes in 1734) soon became numerous, and to facilitate their operations bridges were erected over various streams. Shortly afterward the salt industry had its commencement, and iron furnaces were established not long before the beginning of the Revolutionary War. About the same time shipbuilding had reached large proportions. The mechanical industries of the region were at their height in 1850 and for some years following. Dur- ing this period an advertisement calling for one thousand wood-choppers appeared in a Toms River newspaper, and the schooner sailings from the port named were so many as a dozen a week.
Shipbuilding declined and disappeared with the exhaustion of the timber supply, as did the bog iron interests under the competition of richer mineral fields elsewhere, and the people found new channels into which to direct their energies. About 1845 the cranberry had become an important article of food consumption, and gave to the marsh regions of the State a reputation which extended throughout the land. The wild cranberry had come into favor, but its cultivation was not thought of until about the year named, when some small farmers, engaged in draining swamps in order to utilize the land for meadow purposes, conceived the idea of using such tracts as cranberry bogs. John Webb, of Jackson township, in Ocean county, who went by the name of "Old Peg-Leg Webb," gained re- nown by such a venture, realizing as much as fifty dollars a barrel from Philadelphia merchants who sold them to whalers and other long distance voyagers as an antiscorbutic. Webb's example proved contagious, and the cranberry industry assumed dimensions of a craze, particularly about 1863 and in the two years immediately succeeding. The cultivation of the cran- berry is continued on a large scale and with much profit at various points along the coast, the largest plantations in the State being in Ocean county.
At the same time, the oyster and clam trade (among the oldest indus- . tries of the county) came to be pursued after a more systematic fashion. For some fifteen years past oyster culture has been the chief business of the residents along Toms River from its mouth to Tuckerton, and all available ground in Barnegat and Tuckerton Bays are staked off and planted with native or Virginia oysters. The clam trade has reached im- mense proportions, and the shipments from Tuckerton alone will amount to an average of a carload of sixty thousand clams for each day in the year.
Ocean county became a corporate division by act of the legislature, ap-
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
proved February 15, 1850. Prior to that time its political history is con- tained in that of Monmouth county, of which it is a part, constituting a portion of Shrewsbury when that and Middletown were the only townships in the parent county.
The first township established within the present limits of Ocean coun- ty, was the township of Stafford, which was set off from Shrewsbury township by a patent issued by Governor Belcher, under the authority of King George II, March 3, 1749, when it was a part of Monmouth county. Stafford township then included all of the present townships of Stafford, Eagleswood, Union and Ocean, comprising all the territory between Oys- ter Creek and Little Egg Harbor Inlet. The township is said to have re- ceived its name from one who came from Staffordshire, England-James Haywood-whose descendants have been prominent people in the county from that day to this. The original townships of the county are accounted for in the history of Monmouth county.
By the same legislative act which created the county, Brick township was erected, named in honor of Joseph W. Brick, who was prominent in various manufacturing and other enterprises. This was constituted out of territory in old Howell township, of Monmouth county, and Dover town- ship, of Ocean county.
Manchester township was created in 1865, out of territory taken from Dover township, and received its name from William A. Torrey, in honor of his native city in England.
Lacey township, erected in 1871, was named for General John Lacey, a native of Pennsylvania, who was engaged in the reduction of bog iron ore at Forked River as early as 1809.
Eagleswood township was created in 1874, out of lower Stafford township territory.
Some two centuries after he flourished as one of the Proprietors, the memory of Lord Berkeley was commemorated in the name of a new township created in 1875. In the next year (1876) Ocean township was constituted from portions of Lacey and Union townships, and in 1892 Lakewood township was created out of the western portion of Brick town- ship.
The oldest township in what is now Ocean county (Little Egg Har- bor) was next to the last to be attached to it, in the year 1891. Little Egg Harbor township was created in 1741, as a portion of Burlington county, of which it remained a part for a century and a half, and until its transfer to Ocean county, as noted.
The first county officers, appointed by the Governor, were: Judge, James Guliek ; Prosecutor, Jolin Patterson; Sheriff, Joseph Parker : County
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
Clerk, John J. Irons; Surrogate, David I. C. Rogers. The first board of freeholders assembled May 10, 1850. Economy was the watchword, and a motion to appropriate $2,000 for county expenses was defeated, and the reduced amount of $1,800 was provided. Pending the erection of pub- lic buildings, court sessions were held in a Mormon meeting house at the county seat, Toms River.
A Board of Commissioners, consisting of John S. Forman, John W. Cox and Joel Haywood, for Ocean county, and Forman Hendrickson, Charles Parker and Thomas Arrowsmith, for Monmouth county, was appointed to effect a settlement of accounts between the two counties. This was accomplished, and the new county received from that from which it was detached $3,719.15 on the general account, $165.07 on surplus land account, and bonds and mortgages (including interest) to the value of $13,315.30.
May 5, 1850, a court house building committee was appointed, com- prising William B. Hill, Edwin Shreve and Samuel M. Oliphant, who sub- sequently reported, recommending a building similar to the Hudson coun- ty court house, but of smaller dimensions and somewhat less ornate. George W. Bennett, Amos Falkinburg and Samuel C. Dunham were added to the committee, and June 13, 1851, the edifice was completed at a total cost of $9,956.50.
In 1850, the year it was set off from Monmouth county, Ocean county, notwithstanding its sparse population and its want of political importance (returning but one member to the House of Assembly) enjoyed the dis- tinction of furnishing the Governor to the State-Dr. George F. Fort, a. Democrat. Three years later, another of its residents, the Rev. Joel Hay- wood, was the Whig candidate for Governor, and made a brilliant can- vass, greatly reducing the party plurality of his opponent, Rodman M. Price. Yet three years later was elected as the first Republican Governor of New Jersey, William A. Newell, whom Ocean county people are wont to regard as almost one of themselves.
Atlantic county was taken out of the territory of the ancient county of Gloucester. Under the proprietary rule, the proprietors, freeholders and inhabitants, as early as 1686 (May 28) assumed legislative and judicial powers in and for the "third and fourth tenths, alias county of Gloucester," and established courts.
Gloucester county, however, was not legally created until 1694, and its boundaries were not definitely established until 1710. It originally ex- tended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Delaware River, and out of it were created the county of Atlantic, in 1837, and the county of Camden, in
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1844. The immense area was so divided that, as now constituted, the present Gloucester county approximately equals in extent both the counties taken from it, Atlantic county closely approaching it in size, and Camden county being comparatively small.
In 1834, according to "Gordon's Gazetteer," Atlantic county (as yet undivided) contained 3,075 householders whose ratables did not exceed thirty dollars in value. There were twenty-one fisheries, forty-five grist mills, two cotton and two woolen factories, four carding machines, four blast furnaces, three forges, sixty-three saw mills, seven glass factories and numerous other small industries. May's Landing had about thirty dwellings, Tuckahoe not so many, and the land upon which Atlantic City was not yet, was merely mentioned as "Absecum Beach." There were in the county several academies for teaching the higher education, and pri- mary schools in most neighborhoods. There is mention of many tem- perance associations "which have almost rendered the immoderate use of ardent spirits infamous." But in the next paragraph the chronicler notes the existence of twenty-nine distilleries as returned by the county assessors.
Atlantic county was created February 3, 1837, and contained but four townships-Galloway, Egg Harbor, Weymouth and Hamilton. These contained, according to the Federal census of 1830, 8,164 of the total num- ber of 28,431 inhabitants of the county. With this as a basis, a Board of Commissioners made an apportionment of the public moneys and values, after making allowance for public debts, and set off the amount of $17,- 247.69 to Gloucester county, and $6,947.75 to Atlantic county.
Atlantic county has for its ocean frontage Brigantine Beach and Ab- secon Island, together about twenty miles in length, and between these and the mainland of the county are the waters of Great Bay and Little Bay, with their numerous islets. The mainland portion of the county is very nearly square. It is splendidly watered by numerous streams flowing into Great Bay; by Great Egg Harbor River which heads near its west central boundary and courses southeastwardly to the sea ; and by numerous affluents of the Tuckahoe River, which forms its southern boundary. Pine forests formerly extended over the greater part of the county, but the same lands now produce large quantities of vegetables and fruits.
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