History of Ocean County

Early Woodland Period Indians, known as Lenape, emerge as hunters and gatherers. [Note: By 1740, there were only about 200 Native Americans living in New Jersey, south of the Raritan Bay to Cape May.]

1600

Dutch navigator, surveyor, and cartographer Cornelius Hendrickson navigated Barnegat Inlet and the Toms River onboard the Onrust, becoming the first European explorer to set foot on what became Ocean County soil. The land, which he claimed for Holland, became part of New Netherlands.

1664

King Charles II gave his brother James, Duke of York, the lands of New Netherlands after the Dutch surrendered the land under pressure from the British. It was renamed Albania, and James deeded this territory to two friends: Lord John Berkeley, who was given the western half, and Sir George Carteret, the eastern half.

1685

After Sir George Carteret died, his land holding in the province was sold off piecemeal to pay his indebtedness. The Proprietors began to buy land from the local Native Americans, which gave title for Ocean County lands to Europeans for the first time.

1687

East Jersey and West Jersey was split distinctly into two tracts after land disputes forced a line to be surveyed formally between the two territories. This line became known as the Keith Province Line, which eventually divided Ocean and Burlington counties.

1696

Captain William Kidd set sail from New York. Soon, he, with his crew, turned pirate and began working the waters off the Southern Jersey coast.

1700

Captain Kidd was captured, taken to London where he was tried and hanged for piracy. About this time small settlements began to be established in the Little Egg Habor (Tuckerton), Goose Creek (Toms River), and New Egypt (Plumsted) areas.

1702

Queen Anne changed the province’s name from Albania to New Jersey and made it a Royal Colony, administered by a Royal Governor.

1705

West Creek settled by Jarvis Pharo; Barnegat settled by Jonas Tow.

1712

First road established in Ocean County.

1737

Waretown settled by Abraham Waier.

1743

The Keith Province line between East and West Jersey was resurveyed by John Lawrence following continued land disputes. This line was then referred to as the Division Line.

1749

Stafford Township was formally charted.

1750

1754

French and Indian War erupted and continued until the treaty was signed between the British and French nine years later.

1758

A violent storm opened Cranberry Inlet, which later served a major role in the American Revolution and local history before closing during another violent storm in 1812.

1767

Dover Township formally established by charter.

1770

John Middleton, Jr. built the Tavern at Cedar Bridge, Stafford Township

1774

The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. It set the price for salt, an important colonial commodity and industry along Barnegat Bay and Little Egg Harbor Bay.

1776

The Declaration of Independence was signed and the Revolutionary War began.

1778

Count Casimir Pulaski, a Polish cavalry officer, and his legion were engaged by the British on Osborn Island. Forty troops, massacred by the British in a surprise early morning attack, gained the dubious distinction of being the only men from Washington’s Army to be killed by the British on Ocean County soil.

A British expedition attacked the Toms River Blockhouse and its compliment of twenty-five militiamen under the command of Captain Joshua Huddy. The British burned the village of Toms River and captured and hanged Huddy.

Notorious Tory outlaw John Bacon and his men committed the Barnegat Light Massacre, slaughtering twenty local crew of a salvaged British sloop as they slept.

A skirmish at Cedar Creek (now in Barnegat Township) marked last land conflict of American Revolution.

1783

Loyalist insurgent John Bacon cornered and killed.

1787

United States Constitution drafted and officially declared ratified two years later.

1789

George Washington inaugurated as the first president of the United States.

The first local iron forge was built on Lake Horicon (near present-day Lakehurst).

The first petition, bearing 35 signatures, to establish a new county by separating lands from Burlington and Monmouth counties, was filed. The motion was defeated in the New Jersey State Legislature.

1800

1812

Growing hostilities between the United States and Britain erupted into the War of 1812.

1813

Commodore Hardy, aboard the British ship Ramillies, conducted raids while patrolling off Barnegat Inlet to deter American ships from reaching New York.

1814

A formal New Jersey militia was organized to combat British attacks, especially against coastal and naval interests, during the War of 1812.

Treaty of Ghent ends War of 1812.

Over-hunting forces an end to the whaling industry in Southern Ocean County.

1828

The U.S. Government, aware of the treacherous waters of the Barnegat Shoals, began to build crude shelters along the barrier island beaches to help save shipwreck victims – crews and passengers, most of whom were immigrants. This was the beginning of the Life Saving Service.

1843

Joseph Francis invented the corrugated metal life-car, which proved effective in saving wrecked passengers and crew all along the Atlantic coastal waters.

1844

Jackson Township is created from a separated northwest section of Dover Township.

1845

Plumsted Township is similarly created from a severed section of Jackson Township.

Joel Haywood of West Creek, wrote a letter to the New Jersey State Legislature urging that a new county, called Ocean, be formed from Monmouth County.