History of Monroe Township

Mon­roe Town­ship is in fact a Bicen­ten­nial Com­mu­nity. It’s first res­i­dents pre­date 1776. The town­ship of Mon­roe was formed in March of 1859 at which time Williamstown was des­ig­nated as a place of elec­tions and town meetings.

Mon­roe Town­ship is located in the north­east cor­ner of Glouces­ter County. Early his­tory refers to this as one of the “pine town­ships” because of the abun­dance of pine tim­ber in the area. The area is drained on the east by Four Mile Branch and Squankum Branch of the Great Egg Har­bor River, on the south by White­hall and Hos­pi­tal­ity Branches and Scot­land Run.

Williamstown is sur­rounded by Cecil, Cross Keys, Downer, New Brook­lyn, Robanna and Vic­tory Lakes. Present pop­u­la­tion is approx­i­mately 17,500.

The Lenni-Lenape Indi­ans, a mem­ber of the Delaware Tribe, hunted the woods and fished the streams in early times. Lit­tle oppo­si­tion was given the white man when he set­tled here. The first set­tle­ment now know as Williamstown was called “Squankum”, an Indian name mean­ing, “Place of Evil Ghosts”. It is thought that the “Evil Ghosts” referred to the numer­ous mos­qui­toes found in the area.

Some­where between 1726 and 1742 Richard Penn recorded a deed cov­er­ing what is now Williamstown. This tract was later trans­ferred to Israel Williams. His son, John, later divided this land into lots and farms and sold it.

For a more com­plete account of the his­tory sur­round­ing Mon­roe Town­ship to the present, con­sult “A His­tory of Mon­roe Town­ship” pub­lished by the His­toric Soci­ety of Mon­roe Township.

WILLIAMSTOWN - Squankum was first set­tled in 1737 at which time the set­tle­ment con­sisted of a few houses. It was con­nected to White­hall Mill by road con­structed about 1758. The main occu­pa­tion to the res­i­dents dur­ing this period was hunt­ing and log­ging. By 1839, Squankum had grown to include 10 busi­nesses and 40 dwellings, a few farms, and a church.

A stage coach route from Cam­den to Cape May passed through Cross Keys. The site of the first post office was located at Cross Keys. By 1842 an increase in pop­u­la­tion caused a new post office to be estab­lished. The name of Squankum had already been des­ig­nated to a set­tle­ment fur­ther north so the name Williamstown was selected for the post office and sub­se­quently the town.

Good sand was plen­ti­ful and invited the glass indus­try to become a major aspect in the growth of the town. The Free Will Glass Man­u­fac­turer was the first plant in the area. It was located in part at what is now the West Jer­sey Mfg. Co. Dat­ing from 1837 the Bod­ine names was con­nected with the glass indus­try. Later pur­chased by Wal­ter Thomas, it flour­ished as the Williamstown Glass Mfg. Co. until 1917.

About this time a sec­ond indus­try started to grow, that of can­ning fruit and pro­duce. This gave rise to the present name by which New Jer­sey is known, “The Gar­den State”. The John Sharp Can­ning Co. was started in a small kitchen around 1870.

In 1906 George Pfeif­fer pur­chased the com­pany and con­tin­ued oper­a­tion until 1943. Today, the firm is a lead­ing packer of pro­duce under the Vio­let Brand. A sec­ond plant was later built and packed under the Blue Rib­bon Brand.

The Mon­roe Build­ing & Loan Asso­ci­a­tion, the first of its kind, is now located on Main St. It’s oper­a­tion was to a great extent respon­si­ble for the growth of the town.

In 1919 a new indus­try rose in Mon­roe Town­ship, the Williamstown Foundry. It pro­duced iron prod­ucts of a wide vari­ety over the years. It has changed own­er­ship many times until it went out of exis­tence in about 1969. In 1973 the loca­tion was occu­pied by Accu­race Indus­tries Inc. who deals in solid waste dis­posal material.

Bank­ing in the town started in 1904 with the estab­lish­ment of a bank on Main St. oppo­site the Wash­ing­ton Hotel. This was later replaced with one at the cor­ner of Main St. and Blue Bell Roads.

Reli­gion was a basic part of the early set­tlers. Quak­ers were the first to estab­lish a church s such in the area. The ear­li­est faith to be estab­lished, which still remains today, was the Methodist denom­i­na­tion. After a num­ber of moves a church was erected at the present loca­tion of the First United Methodist Church on Church St. and a Town Clock was placed in it’s tower.

In 1840 the Williamstown Pres­by­ter­ian Church had orga­nized. It’s cor­ner­stone was laid in 1841. After years of growth and many changes in pas­torates a new church was erected in 1912 and ded­i­cated in 1913 on the spot now occu­pied by the First United Pres­by­ter­ian Church.

The Roman Catholic church too had an early begin­ning and in 1903 the first Mass was cel­e­brated in the old Town Hall. St. Mary’s of the Assump­tion was orig­i­nally located at the cor­ner of Wash­ing­ton Avenue and New Brook­lyn Road. It occu­pied this site until 1923. Father McCue, the first Amer­i­can born priest to head St. Mary’s, secured its present loca­tion on Main St. Rev. Fran­cis J. Cos­grove was named pas­tor of St. Mary’s in 1935 and headed it dur­ing it’s dark­est hours. In 1949 a prop­erty on Library Street was bought for a parochial school.

St. John’s Evan­gel­i­cal Lutheran Church was orga­nized in Octo­ber of 1897 by a group of Ger­man set­tlers. The first church was located on what is now the Black Horse Pike at Cork­ery Lane. St. John’s ceme­tery remains at the site. In 1928 the New Jer­sey State High­way Depart­ment sur­veyed what is now the Black Horse Pike as a result of which the church had to be moved. In 1929 the cor­ner­stone was laid for the present church on south Main St.

In 1955 an edu­ca­tional build­ing was erected due to the increased Sun­day School atten­dance. It was not until 1959 that St. John’s had its sec­ond full time pas­tor Rev. Elwood K. Healey, the first one being Rev. Robert Oswald who was installed in 1951 more than 50 years after its orga­ni­za­tion. The present rec­tor is Pas­tor Stan­ley Philips.

School existed in the town­ship long before it was cre­ated. In Squankum a school was located where the Wash­ing­ton Hotel now stands. It was a log cabin one room school dat­ing to about 1750. Major John Tice, who served with Gen­eral George Wash­ing­ton at Val­ley Forge, was the first school mas­ter. These were the days of the three L’s not R’s — Licker, Lick­ens and Larnin.

When appointed the school mas­ter took the school trustees to the local tav­ern and treated them to their sat­is­fac­tion. In addi­tion if you didn’t Larn you got a Licken.

Most of the spelling and read­ing, how­ever, was learned in the Sun­day Schools. It started with the alpha­bet and ended with four syl­la­ble words.

In 1844 the log cabin school was moved to the cor­ner of the Methodist’s grave yard. Here the pupils watched funer­als for pass time. Dur­ing this period the schools were not free. In fact they did not become entirely free until 1854. Pri­vate schools were oper­ated by the Pres­by­ter­ian church and other reli­gious groups. Large land own­ers had their chil­dren taught at home.

The first frame school house was built in 1849.

In about 1870 the town was hon­ored with the pres­ence of the great ora­tor Horace Gree­ley who was the main speaker when a new fence was put around the Methodist Ceme­tery to replace the old wooden one.

In 1872 a new school was built where the Maple Grove School now stands. By 1874 there were 6 schools in the township.

Oak Knoll school was built in 1927 but it was not until 1958 that the town­ship had a high school.

CECIL — The ear­li­est known set­tler of Cecil was Thomas Coles who moved here in 1750 and lived in what was known as Coles Mills. He lived in the wood­land along the Hos­pi­tal­ity Branch of the Great Egg Har­bor River and man­u­fac­tured char­coal. He also set-up water mills to grind grain and saw wood. From this came the names of Coles Mills. A road in the vicin­ity still bears that name.

The Chew fam­ily, an early name in the area, arrived about 1862 and was known to have oper­ated a saw mill where Coles Mill stood. The Chew fam­ily were the first to engage in the cran­berry indus­try and were quite suc­cess­ful. In 1883 a Post Office was set-up at which time the named was changed to Cecil to honor Lord Cecil, a respected Com­mis­sioner of the Exeter in Eng­land from whence the Coles originated.

CROSS KEYS - This com­mu­nity was the cen­ter of busi­ness and polit­i­cal activ­ity until Mon­roe Town­ship was formed. Six roads inter­sected here and aided in town­ship divi­sions. One of the ear­li­est sur­veys in the area was made in 1716 along the present Hurf­fville Road. One sixth of the area stayed in Mon­roe Town­ship and the rest went to Wash­ing­ton Town­ship. Farm­ing was the prin­ci­pal occu­pa­tion at that time. Few, if any of these orig­i­nal farms still exist. Its loca­tion on the stage route between Cam­den and Cape May added to its impor­tance. A tav­ern at the inter­sec­tion of the main roads still stands today as a pri­vate res­i­dence. A pio­neer gen­eral store was oper­ated in the “Keys” as was a black­smith shop which employed a tin­smith and a wheel­right. A saw mill in the area sold lum­ber for building.

Close fam­ily rela­tions in the com­mu­nity was the strongest uni­fy­ing fac­tor. These ties still exist today. Today church and grange have, to some extent aided this unification.

As in Williamstown, the Friends were the first to set up reli­gious meet­ings. Methodists fol­lowed close behind occu­py­ing the same build­ing vacated by the Friends which they used as a church and as a school. The Chest­nut Ridge site was served by preach­ers also serv­ing Squankum. In 1844 a Sun­day School was formed. In 1875 a new frame build­ing was erected as a church. In 1904 a tower and bell were ded­i­cated dur­ing the pas­torate of Rev. Fisler. Many improve­ments have been made since those early days to make way for growth and Chris­t­ian education.

NEW BROOKLYN - This com­mu­nity was set­tled in 1803 by John Mar­shalls from Black­wood. He estab­lished a saw mill in the area. Mar­shalls also owned saw mills in Black­wood and near Coles Mills. Located at the mouth of the Four Mile Branch of the Great Egg Har­bor River it was an ideal site for the mill. Mar­shall became one of the most promi­nent men in the area because of his busi­ness hold­ings which con­sisted of thou­sands of acres of tim­ber­land. Fol­low­ing his suc­cess in the tim­ber busi­ness, he ven­tured to build a grist mill. The mill ground bolted flour and feed. This ven­ture proved a mis­take as there was not enough grain in the area to make it profitable.

New Brook­lyn was for­merly known as Seven Cause­ways. Only Indian trails tra­versed the area. No roads existed so Mar­shall being a prac­ti­cal sur­veyor laid out roads in the area.

Although he appeared to be set in life, at the age of 63 he entered a new busi­ness. He became the owner of a glass fac­tory fol­low­ing the death of his sec­ond father-in-law who started the busi­ness in 1831. He oper­ated it for 8 years after which he retired at the age of 71.

New Brook­lyn Glass Works used seven pots, with twelve rings using clay moulds. The employed 100 hands. Although a fac­tory store was built in con­nec­tion with the glass works, many of their needs were sup­plied by Squankum or Blue Anchor, espe­cially their whiskey. “Squire Mar­shall” as he was called, built a school for his employ­ees’ chil­dren. Although the Methodists who also used the build­ing, gave him some trou­ble when he was per­suaded to allow them to con­tinue their meetings.

Mar­shall died at the age of 84 after a walk in some of the roads he had pre­vi­ously laid in the area.

The orig­i­nal New Brook­lyn Glass Works was replaced by another after it burned down. The new oper­a­tion failed and was later reopened by Clay­ton Tice who oper­ated it for 10 years. In 1859 the Methodist Church was erected there and the school was replaced by a new build­ing. The old school was used as a com­mu­nity build­ing. Later when the chil­dren com­muted to Williamstown for school, the school build­ing became the new com­mu­nity build­ing. It was also used as the Sun­day School.

ROBANNA - Lit­tle is known of that part of Mon­roe Town­ship once called Robanna. There are no well defined bound­aries or mark­ers show­ing its exis­tence and prob­a­bly many cit­i­zens liv­ing there today are com­pletely unaware of the fact that they live in Robanna.

Basi­cally the area called Robanna cen­tered about a small rail­road flag sta­tion near the inter­sec­tion of Tuck­a­hoe Road and the old rail­road. This site is about a quar­ter mile south of the present inter­sec­tion of the Tuck­a­hoe and Glass­boro Roads. Robanna could prob­a­bly be con­sid­ered as the area presently located on the Tuck­a­hoe Road from just north of Clay­ton Road almost up to the ham­let of Cross Keys.

For many years Robanna served as a stop on the rail­road from which goods and pro­duce could be shipped; also, pas­sen­ger ser­vice was avail­able to Williamstown and Glass­boro. This ser­vice was dis­con­tin­ued in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s. A large home owned by George Ware was located near the rail­road sta­tion and, at times, the Ware’s kitchen served as a “cof­fee break” stop for both train crews and passengers.

Accord­ing to local leg­end Robanna was named after the wife of a Mr. J. Robb. Mrs. Robb’s first name was Anna. Most prob­a­bly some local wit reversed the two names and the cross­roads vil­lage of Rob­banna sud­denly had a name.

The Robb house was located on the north­west cor­ner of the Glass­boro Tuck­a­hoe Road inter­sec­tion. Presently, a ser­vice sta­tion is located at about the site of the old Robb homestead.

Some old fam­ily names con­nected with Robanna are Robb, Sykes, Ware, Carvin, Klett, Roun, Pierce, John­son, Camp­bell, Vodges and Bate­man. Many of these names are still well known in Mon­roe Town­ship; some still in Robanna.

DOWNER - For a com­pre­hen­sive pic­ture of it’s early set­tle­ment and devel­op­ment, we are indebted to John Rulon Downer who wrote, “I rec­og­nize the pro­pri­ety of set­ting forth facts and descrip­tions of my peo­ple and the ham­let named after them in a man­ner I am quite sure shall not fail to edify, please and instruct them-those gen­er­a­tions that shall fol­low.” Although Arthur Downer and his wife arrived in 1858, signs were evi­dent of pre­vi­ous occupancy.

An Indian bury­ing ground was present as was an indi­ca­tion of cul­ti­va­tion of the fields. Crops were grown next to the pub­lic road. Peach trees were also raised and although they bore rather fee­bly, on one occa­sion it is said the crop of peaches was so large they resem­bled can­taloupes. Apple trees could also be found in the area.

In 1864 res­i­dents of Downer voted for Abra­ham Lin­coln and were dri­ven to the polls by Arthur Downer himself.

The Downer house was a typ­i­cal house of the times con­sist­ing of two rooms down­stairs and three rooms upstairs. They were used for many rea­sons in addi­tion to liv­ing quar­ters some of which were gra­nary, stor­age, etc. Hams were stored in the fireplace.

By 1871 the pop­u­la­tion had grown suf­fi­ciently large to require the need of a school. As in other ham­lets in the area, the school ini­tially was built for chil­dren and later became the prop­erty of the church. Part of the Downer Methodist’s church is the orig­i­nal school.

In 1875 the potato bug infested their crops and left them in seri­ous dif­fi­culty. They had to turn to new fields of endeavor.

John, the son, had dis­cov­ered yel­low sand in the area but his father paid lit­tle atten­tion to this. Later the bur­ial of a valu­able colt in the sand proved to be event­ful because it was tested and found to be good for the glass industry.

Deliv­ery of the sand was first made by horse drawn wagon and later by rail deliv­ery on the Williamstown and Delaware River Rail­road. A sid­ing was placed at the Fries Mill Road to take advan­tage of the cheap rail rates. The name for­merly used by this area was Whit­neyville and was short­ened to Whit­ney. When the post office was built, the name was changed to Downer.

Mixed with the white sand suit­able for glass man­u­fac­ture was yel­low sand not suit­able. After some search­ing it was found that this sand was good for use in the rapidly grow­ing steel indus­try some­thing new for this area.

As in all the sur­round­ing areas, the Methodist Church played an impor­tant part. It began with the efforts of Mary and Arthur Downer who after attend­ing a camp meet­ing, felt the need to have their neigh­bors expe­ri­ence “Sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion” as they called it. Revivals were started at the “Cor­ner House.” Sun­day School was con­ducted in the Downer home­stead while church ser­vices were attended in Williamstown. How­ever, real­iz­ing that with growth a new per­ma­nent church would be needed, one was built. It was later destroyed by fire and quickly rebuilt.

John Downer him­self died in 1928 and as he requested, was buried in the Williamstown Methodist Ceme­tery. His tomb­stone bears the sim­ple words “His­to­rian” which he truly was.

Much has hap­pened in the first hun­dred years in the life of Mon­roe Town­ship and much more will hap­pen in the years to come. Within the past sev­en­teen years alone since the Cen­ten­nial cel­e­bra­tion more schools have been built. A new library replaced the old one now used as a home for the Mon­roe Town­ship His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety. A new fire sta­tion and police head­quar­ters have been built. Churches have been enlarged and the pop­u­la­tion is ever increas­ing. Who knows what is in store for us in the years to come! This infor­ma­tion was pro­vided by the Mon­roe Town­ship His­tor­i­cal Society