Ocean County , NJ History

This town is,or was, in the Medford area. According to E.M. Woodward's 1883 history, it was on the eastern border of the township. There was a mill there by name of Peacocks Mill. It was also known as "The Steam Turning Mill". Chairville was supposedly named for the chair factory which was located there, although the sawmill stood longer than the chair factory. The sawmill was in operation until at least the 1890s. The chair factory was no longer around by the 1880s, although there was a grocery store and about a half dozen dwellings.

from the New Jersey Mirror 8 May 1907: The jury empaneled by Coroner Seeds to investigate the killing of David Beebe, at Chairville, the previous Saturday night , heard the evidence presented at the inquest at Medford on Friday, and after brief deliberation held Caleb Rogers, Theodore Wells and Walter Simons, three of the seven suspected men taken from the county jail to Medford by Deputy Sheriff Fleetwood to give testimony before the coroner, if they so desired. Harvey Reeves, another one of the men arrested on suspicion of having been implicated in the killing, was not held for his connection with Beebe's death, but was committed to jail in default of $350 bail on the charge of carrying a concealed deadly weapon. There has been a determined effort on the part of the court to break up the practice so common among a certain class of young men, of carrying revolvers, and it is possible that a term in prison awaits young Reeves, even though he escaped detention on the more serious ...