Ocean County , NJ History

This is not the famed Allentown of Pennsylvania, nor the town in Monmouth County so well known in this part of the state. It is a far lesser known town, a section of Bass River Township. The following description of the town appeared in the Bass River Gazette in Oct 1998 and is here reprinted with the author's permission: "Allentown begins about a mile north of Route 9 on North Maple Avenue (previously called Allentown Road) and runs to the old Bass River Hotel. It was originally settled by Robert Allen, and for many years his descendants inhabited most of the homes in this area"

from the New Jersey Courier 29 Jul 1875 Last week, Louis, aged about 14 years, a son of Hon. Andrew Browne, of Middletown, met with a serioius accident by the accidental discharge of a pistol in his trouser's pocket. The ball entered the inner side of his leg and penetrated to a depth that the doctor was unable to extract it.

from the New Jersey Mirror 15 Jul 1875 Two men from Trenton named Gamble and Dirth were upset in Crosswick's Creek near Bordentown on Thursday night last, while fishing. Their boat capsized and Gamble, being an excellent swimmer, struck out for the shore, while Dirth, not knowing how to swim clung to the boat. Gamble was drowned and Dirth was saved. Gamble's body was found in the creek at Bonaparte's old wharf on Sunday. The body was much decomposed. Coroner Beatty of Mercer County held an inquest Monday morning.

from the New Jersey Mirror 22 Jul 1875 On Saturday last, John D. Longstreet, aged 21, a conductor on a construction train, while engaged in disconnecting cars at the depot, had his right foot caught between the curtain and the bumper of two cars and the fleshy part of his foot frightfully lacerated. Dr. A. E. Budd was called in and upon examination, fortunately found that no bones were broken, although the injury is a very severe one. Mr. Longstreet is a son of Supervisor Longstreet of the Pennsylvania railroad and resides in Mount Holly.

from the New Jersey Mirror 26 Jul 1905 Charles Long, the negro for whom the police of Trenton are looking upon the charge of having murdered Matthew Cunningham, of that city, on July 16, is a native of this county, having been born and spent several long years of his life at Cookstown. Long was recently seen near a thick piece of woods by officers who fired at him, but the murderer managed to make his escape in the underbrush The next day, the New York Times even carried the story: SAY NEGRO MURDERER HAS FLED FROM SWAMP; Jersey Police Give Up Search in That Direction. FARMERS ARM THEMSELVES Long Is a Desperate Man, and They Think He May Seek Revenge for Pursuit Link to story then again, on 2 Aug 1905: Interest has been revived in the hunt for the negro murderer Charles Long, of Trenton, by the increasing of the reward to $500. An additional $250 reward has been offered by Mercer Co. Board of Freeholders, which brings the sum up to the amount named. and a link to a scanned ....

from the New Jersey Mirror 12 Jun 1879 Mr. Charles K. Landis, of Vineland, has been granted a divorce on the grounds of desertion. This is a startling sequel to the killing of Carruth, his wife's d [word is unclear-starts with letter "d". Would love to know what this said, but the copy of the paper is just too difficult to read here].

from the New Jersey Mirror 2 Jan 1878 The dead body of a man named Charles Wilson was found by the roadside near Dicksontown, a few days ago. He had been in Medford the night before, where he purchased a few articles

from the New Jersey Mirror 27 Jun 1894 The tug James D. Nichol , with sixty-three excursionists and a crew of 12 men on board, sank in a squall three miles off Atlantic Highlands, while returning from the fishing grounds on Sunday. Fifty one of those on board were rescued alive, three bodies were recovered, and the remainder, it is believed, were drowned. The New York Times actually ran an article about this one

from the New Jersey Mirror 29 Jul 1875 M.H. Ivins, who has recently erected a new store at Florence station, remarked a day or two since that the water from the well in the cellar had a peculiar taste. On investigating the cause, he found that a molasses hogshead had been about half emptied by neglecting the tap, and the molasses had run into the well. It only needed vinegar to make a good summer drink

From the New Jersey Mirror, 29 Jul 1875 As William Irick, son of the late General William Irick, was driving up to the passenger depot, at Vincentown, on Thursday, to take the 1.50 p.m. train, his horse became alarmed at the drilling of the freight cars, and making a sudden turn, upset the carriage, throwing the occupants, Mrs. Morrow and daughter, and himself, beneath it. Mrs. Morrow received bruises on the side and breast, while Miss Morrow escaped uninjured. Mr. Irick struck his head with such force against the platform of the station that he remained insensible for several hours. He was taken to the home of John S. Sloan, where he received every attention. On Thursday evening Mr. Irick was not so well, complaining of his head .

from the New Jersey Mirror 22 Jul 1875 [the following story is quoted from the Visitor] Richard White, living on the River Bank, started out in his sail boat on Tuesday afternoon to look after a batteau which had been stolen a few nights previous. While nearing Burlington, a flaw upset the sail boat. Night came on his family became anxious about him, when his son William and Wm. Spellerberg went out to find him which they did near Burlington. When discovered, Mr. White could scarcely move, he having been in the water some time in endeavoring to get his boat ashore when he was seized with the cramp, and if assistance had not arrived in time he would probably have drowned. The affair created a great deal of excitement in Beverly, and rumors were rife during the evening that the gentleman had been found drowned, etc. Mr. White was entirely recovered and from appearances hie is likely to survive his allotted time.

from the New Jersey Mirror 15 Jul 1875 A calf's disease, said to be plenropneumonia, has broken out among the cows of Michael R. Nixon, in Mansfield Township, Burlington Co.

From the New Jersey Mirror 15 Jul 1875: On the 5th, a Fourth of July party on a schooner coming up the Delaware, all hands being very much intoxicated, lost a man overboard, and was not aware of the fact until they missed him on arriving opposite Burlington. His disappearance cannot be accounted for, except upon supposition of the above. The sum of fifty dollars has been offered for his recovery. A fifty dollar reward, but the article doesn't bother to give his name?

According to the New Jersey Mirror of 15 Jul 1875, A short time since Hezekiah Haines, a farmer residing in Charleston, Burlington County, had three fine dogs poisoned, which died. How is that the totality of the story? Here in New Jersey last week, someone killed a dog, supposedly by throwing it out of a truck. Pages and pages of newsprint have been filled over it. And here's three dogs getting poisoned--it doesn't even speculate as to whom, or why, or any other information, like it's the most commonplace thing ever in 1875.

from the New Jersey Mirror 22 Mar 1865 We published in our last paper, a brief account of a boy, only twelve years of age, committing suicide, by hanging, near Crosswicks. The following particulars of the affair, we copy from the Bordentown Register: SUICIDE.--About two weeks since, a boy named Josiah Mason, committed suicide by hanging himself, near Crosswicks. The deceased was a mere lad, only twelve years of age, and was hired out by his widowed mother, living in this city, to Mr. Robert E. Woodward, a highly respectable farmer, residing near Crosswicks, for a term of four years. He was in the employ of Mr. W. only a few months, during which time, we are assured by his employer, he conducted himself very properly, always obeying in whatever was required of him. About the time the deed was committed, at his request, he was allowed to go home for a short time.--Upon leaving home to return to his employer, he remarked that it was the last time they would see him. The same remark w...

from the New Jersey Mirror 30 Jun 1864 A colored man John Henry, living in the Township of Evesham, committed a murderous assault upon a German woman named Elizabeth Baker, on Wednesday last, by shooting her with a double-barreled shot-gun and afterwards beating and stamping upon her. It appears that an unfriendly feeling had long existed between the parties, who were near neighbors: the woman who is represented to be of a very contentious, quarrelsome disposition, having for a long time, resorted to various petty devices to annoy and irritate the negro. On Wednesday, the latter was on his way to a neighbor's house, having in his hand a double-barreled gun, for the purpose, as he alleges, of defending himself from a vicious dog--when he encountered the woman on the road. An altercation took place between them, when Henry turned and shot the woman in the back, inflicting a dangerous wound, and then stamped upon the body. One of the woman's arms was broken and she lies in crit...

from the New Jersey Mirror, 6 Sep 1860 A Woodbury correspondent of the True Democrat, under date of August 29th, furnishes the following item of interest: A colored man was shot at Eagle Point farm, last night, in the melon patch of Mr. J. J. Richards, by one of his sons. He had been at the house to receive some wages, and had been given a melon. In going home, he passed through the melon-patch, and was shot, the poor fellow says, while getting over the fence. The whole load entered the small of his back, and made a tremendous hole.--He laid in the field all night, until this morning, when his groans attracted the attention of some of the family. He was brought to Woodbury and left in the jail. The doctor in attendance at once pronounced that he could not live but a short time, and he died in a couple of hours after. An inquest will be held this afternoon. A warrant is out for the arrest of young Richards. It is a bad case--the negro being an old thief, and having been convicted sever...

From the New Jersey Mirror 26 Aug 1858 The storm on Tuesday afternoon of last week, was very severe in different parts of the County. Near the Red Lion, a man named George Bartlett, was struck by lightning, and instantly killed. He was a carpenter and had been at work on the house of Josiah Prickitt. When the storm came up, he went in the house, and took a seat near the chimney, in the kitchen, Mr. Prickitt sitting only a few feet from him. The fluid ran down the chimney, immediately by the side of Mr. Bartlett, killing him instantly, while Mr. Prickitt was but slightly stunned. In various parts of Springfield, the wind and hail did considerable damage. Fields of corn were completely prostrated, trees and fences blown down, and a large quantity of window-glass broken. In the house of James B. Warner, 71 panes of glass were broken, and in the house of George Gandy, 49 panes were demolished and scattered, by the force of the wind and hail. At Francis B. Warner's, a chimney was b...

This item appeared in the 7 April 1819 issue of the New Jersey Mirror: Ten dollars reward will be paid to any person who will secure a Negro man, whose real name is Daniel Clark, but has passed under the following assumed names: Thomas Kitchen, Thomas Field, Paul Cuffee, David Mapp, Richard Allen, Jacob Stapler, John Gloster, and James Chatman. He is about 5 feet , 8 or 9 inches high, well set, very black, and looks remarkably well--is very insinuating in his manners and a complete adept in every species of Theft and Swindling. He sometimes calls himself a free-willed Baptist Preacher--sometimes says he is a Methodist preacher--and has preached for both persuasions at different places. When last seen, he had on a black coat and black vest, grey cassinett pantaloons, boots, a common fur hat, and very neat in his appearance.He has reported that he was raised by William Newbold, of Springfield, NJ, but his native place is not known. He took numerous articles with him from Mount Holly. ...

From the New Jersey Courier of 24 June 1875: Captain Samuel Crowley and William Sooy of Washington Township have a law suit on hand before Squire Brome, growing out of a disputed cedar swamp. The township committee of Washington Township have determined to investigate these charges of malfeasance against Captain Samuel Crowley. They have appointed Charles Brome, Joel VanSant,jr., and H.H. Miller, a committee to examine his work. Said committee will proceed to business next Friday June 55th [obviously a typo]

taken from Woodward, E.M., History of Burlington and Mercer Counties. pp. 58-63. CHAPTER X. CANALS AND RAILROADS. "IN Beecher’s Magazine for January, 1872, Judge Lucius Q.C. Elmer published an article entitled ‘General Bernard and Joseph Bonaparte.’ In December, 1823, an act was passel by the Legislature of New Jersey appointing Lucius Q.C. Elmer, Peter Kean, and George Holcombe commissioners for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability and expediency of a canal to unite the tidewaters of the Delaware and Raritan Rivers. There was at that time a board of engineers, organized by virtue of a special act of Congress as a board of internal improvements. This board came into New Jersey, and in conjunction with the State board made a hasty examination of the route previously surveyed, in 1816, by a State commission under John Randel, Jr., Esq. The final result of this examination was that the plan of making the canal a State or national work was abandoned, and in 1830 the Del...

taken from Woodward, E.M., History of Burlington and Mercer Counties. pp. 53-58. CHAPTER IX. OLD ROADS AND COURSES OF TRAVEL IN EARLY TIMES — STEAMBOATS ON THE DELAWARE —COLONIAL POST-OFFICES OF BURLINGTON COUNTY. NEW JERSEY, lying between the great sea-ports of New York and Philadelphia, naturally became the great highway of communication, not only between these early villages, but between the New England and Southern colonies. Prior to the coming of the English, the Dutch communicated between their settlements at New Amsterdam and those on the Delaware by an Indian trail. A portion of this "old Indian path" can even now be traced with great accuracy, and vestiges of the inhabitants of the forest, their corn-mills, in bowlders, are still found upon it. The late Hon. George Sykes, in a communication to the author, says,— "The old Indian path from Burlington to Shrewsbury left the Old York road on the farm now owned (1865) by William H. Black, on the north side of...

From the Asbury Park Press 20 Oct 1923 Camden, Oct 20- Charles Johnson, negro, an alleged highwayman, was at the point of death in a hospital here as the result of a shooting affray with Raymond Watson, a policeman, who sought to arrest him early today at his home in Woodbury after a motorist had reported being held up, beaten and robbed. The policeman had a bullet wound in his chest but maintained guard over his prisoner in the hospital. Johnson was traced to his home by the motorist, O.E. Bellini of Philadelphia. Bellini said four bandits on teh Paulsboro road near Woodbury had leaped out of a motor car, brandishing pistols and ordered him to halt his car. "Johnson struck me over the head with a blackjack", Bellini said. "The other three held pistols to my body and searched me. They could not find my money and I handed them $3 I had in one pocket"

From the New Jersey Courier, 11 May 1905, under the 'Adamston' section: A 12-year-old boy was killed Saturday by a small explosion in his garage. Police believe the boy, Justin Szuba of the 400 block of Adamston Road, Brick Township, was experimenting with gun powder in the garage of his residence about 8:30 p.m., and the explosion caused an object to strike his chest. The boy was found outside of his home when rescue crews arrived. He was taken to Brick Hospital and pronounced dead at 9:51 p.m. The incident is under investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutors Office, the criminalistics unit of the Ocean County Sheriffs Department and the Brick Township Police Department.

Found this story in the Tuckerton Beacon of 12 Jun 1914. Asbury Park, June 6 --- A rather good looking young woman who says she is Mrs. Raymond Miller, colored, but who the police say is a white girl from a Forked River family, was sentenced to 60 days in the county jail in the city court this morning as a disorderly person. Detective Sergeant Broderick told Judge Borden the girl had been supporting Raymond Miller, a west side negro, by the money she made on the streets. Miller did no work, and lived with the girl in a three room bungalow on Borden Avenue. The girl said she had been married to Miller last June in Belmar by a Hamilton justice whose name she could not remember. She said she was colored because her father had been a Cuban. She declared that she had left Miller when he tried to force her to a life of shame in order to suupport him. She had obeyed him, she declared, until she sickened of it. Beside Miller, there was a second man in the Borden Avenue house whom the ...

May 1930 saw a huge forest fire in the pines of Ocean County. This is how it was reported in the New Jersey Courier of 9 May 1930: Tuckerton Lost One House in Four Days Tuckerton, May 8--For a period of three days this town experienced the worst series of forest fires ever recorded here. Beginning with Saturday afternoon and still raging on Wednesday night. Every able bodied man and even school boys were fighting fires. There were companies here from Atlantic City, Ocean City, Pomona, Beach Haven, West Creek, Manahawkin, Beach- Arlington and other places. During the time a thousand or more men have been at work. The first fire started on Saturday afternoon at Tuckerton Manors, a new development on North Green street road, and quickly spread through the Wood street area, but above the houses, burned out to the New York road, endangering the Marine Radio Station, the home of James Cullen, his son's and Joseph Petzak's. These places were saved only after a hard fight. On Sun...

from the New Jersey Mirror 17 Aug 1881: A HEAVY SHOWER of wind and rain visited this vicinity shortly after five o'clock on Saturday afternoon. The day had been extremely hot, said to have been the hottest of the season, the mercury rising to 100 in the shade. The storm came up suddenly, the wind blowing a young hurricane, trimming dead limbs and some live ones from the trees and strewing the streets with them. The rain followed as suddenly and for some time the rain-fall was heavy, the lightning sharp and the thunder startling, indicating that the lightning had struck something near by. The shower was over in less than a half hour. Soon after the storm it was learned that the lightning had done fatal work on the road between Mount Holly and Lumberton. It appears that just as the shower was approaching, Isaac Fenimore, living near Lumberton, drove to the Mount Holly depot for Mrs. Blanche Short, engaged as a domestic in the family, who was waiting to be conveyed to his residence....

in May of 1936, a tremendous forest fire swept through the Pine Barrens of Ocean County. This is how it was reported in the pages of the New Jersey Mirror on the 27th of May Five Killed, Many Injured in Greatest Forest Fires in the History of Two Counties / More Than 20,000 Acres Involved in Four-Day Conflagration in the Area from Chatsworth to Tuckerton and Manahawkin--2,000 Men Fought Fire / Men Were Trapped While Fighting In one of the worst forest fires in the history of Burlington and Ocean counties, the past four days, burning over more than 20,000 acres, five men lost their lives and many others were injured. The area involved includes the section from Chatsworth to Tuckerton. There also were fires east of Brown's Mills. Colonel Leonidas J. Coyle, state fire warden, reported last night that the fire was under control and practically extinguished, when a change of wind turned the flames back over the area already burned over. The dead are: Edward F. Sullivan, 19, of ...