Ocean County , NJ History

Notes on Bridgeboro This town was, or maybe still is?, located in Delran Township in Burlington County. It was on the west bank of the Rancocas River, mostly on the land that had once belonged to the Rancocas Toll Bridge Company. At present, some of the only residents I have come across of this town were posted to a mailing list about 10 years ago. They were Daniel and Mary (Applegate) Vandergrift. They had a daughter, Martha Lippincott Vandergrift, born in 1852 in or near Bridgeboro. Her later married name was Hullings. There was another child of Daniel and Mary, also, by name of Mary Heaton Vandergrift. Another resident of this town is mentioned in the New Jersey Mirror on Jul 24 1889; it says:: Samuel L. Litle, of Bridgeboro,finally succeeded in committing suicide Friday by hanging himself up to a rafter in his blacksmith shop, where he was found by Smith Loyd and William Meeks early in the morning dead. Mr. Litle who has for some time shown signs of derangement and who has b...

from the New Jersey Courier 6 Feb 1879: The bay is still frozen over here and has been since the last of December, a very long period. Our people daily walk across it in going to and coming from the beach

from the New Jersey Courier 19 Oct 1923 JUNIOR K.K.K NOW Branches of Junior Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which recently had its inception in Indiana, are being organized in Monmouth and Ocean Counties. The work has been in progress in this section about three weeks and already it is said about 500 youths have been enrolled. Boys between the ages of 12 to 18, sons of the members of the K.K.K. or sons of the Royal Riders of the Red Robe are eligible to membership, the latter, of course, if they have been born in this country. The boys have a regalia said to be somewhat like that of the K.K.K.

From New Jersey Courier 19 Oct 1923 Richard Pryor, colored, of Bay Head, ought to thank his lucky stars that he was in Ocean County instead of some southern state when on Wednesday of this week he was sentenced by Judge Newman to thirty days in the county jail, the term to begin at the time of his arrest. Pryor's wife worked for Lawrence Boggs, of Newark, who has a summer home at Bay Head. Mrs. Boggs was awakened by a noise one night recently to find a naked negro by her bedside. She screamed, and her husband ran in and grappled him. The negro escaped at the time but it was afterward found to have been Pryor. He was tried and convicted, his plea was that he broke into the house to find his wife. The wife, at the trial, said that earlier in the night he had been drunk and abusive and she had to sneak away from him.

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 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.

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...

A hurricane blew through the NJ-Philadelphia region in 1818, and surprisingly got only this small write-up in the local paper: from the New Jersey Mirror 9 Dec 1818 A violent gale from the southwest commenced about 10 o'clock last Saturday evening and continued with little intermission until Sunday morning at sunrise. The damage to the port of Philadelphia was extensive. Nothing this severe has been experienced for twenty years. So a storm not seen in 20 years causes extensive damage---and this is the news? Likely it wasn't actually a hurricane---the official list of hurricanes for that year does not mention one in December.

Sharing bits of information related to genealogy and history, mostly New Jersey related.  I also post the information on my website at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~batsto/ I'll also be posting photographs taken in my travels around the state for posterity.  Like this picture of a shack out on Cedar Bonnet Island taken around 2009.