Crowleytown
Crowleytown
Washington Township, Burlington County, NJ
This town is supposed to have stood where the state run "Crowley's Landing" picnic area
is today in Wharton State Forest, Washington Township. Samuel Crowley ran two different glassworks
there although there is some uncertainty as to whether it was Samuel or Samuel, jr.. Crowley had
big plans for the town, and tried to sell big city investors on the idea to no avail. On his
four hundred acres he erected his first glassworks in 1851; there were also stores, a hotel, and of
course homes for the employees. One plant employed twelve blowers, and he even had plans for
a canal to the Delaware. However, his glasshouses proved unprofitable when he failed to attract
the necessary investment and sold out to a New York group who renamed his glassworks the
'Atlantic Glass Works.' There were several fires, the last of which occurred in 1866. Although
it was abandoned, the plant stood until it finally collapsed in 1874, the same year the
devestating
fire occurred up the road at Batsto (At the Crowleytown glassworks, it has
been said the very first mason jar was made, but I can not verify this).
Historian William McMahon claims to have recorded the following leases from vol. 38 of the Wharton Title
concering Crowleytown:
- 1862 from Isaiah Weeks and Samuel Crowley to Crowleyville Glass company, two
lots and fourteen houses
- 1866 Isaiah Weeks to Burlington, Atlantic, Cape May, and Philadelphia Glass Company
- 1869 from John Dougherty, the President of the company, to John Dougherty,
director and "practical glass maker."
Although by the 1870s it seems there was no longer any industry in Crowleytown, as late as the mid 1890s there were still some residents in the township who called that place home. The following list is excerpted from Poll Books in the possession of Batsto Historic Site, from elections that were held in 1892 and 1894. Several voters appear with their place of residence listed as Crowleytown.
| 1892 | 1894 |
|---|---|
| Alanson Cobb | William Cobb |
| Joseph M. Birdsall | Robert Ford |
| William S. Wills (?) |
According to one source, in or near Crowleytown the Wills family at one point
operated the Buttonwood Tavern. It was run by George and Mary (Dellett) Wills. They were tavern keepers in 1850, but in 1860
(when part of the township was taken away to form Shamong Township), George was listed as a farmer, so he got out of the tavern
business somewhere in between the census years.
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