5 fascinating facts about Toms River's history

Jean Mikle | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Toms River historian talks about Huddy Park Toms River Township Clerk and Historian J. Mark Mutter discusses the importance of Huddy Park

TOMS RIVER - June 24 is officially Toms River's 250th birthday. How much do you know about the township's rich history?

Here are five fun facts about Toms River, adapted from a presentation by Township Clerk and Historian J. Mark Mutter, who talks about the history of the township's first park, Huddy Park, in the video above.

1. The Lenni Lenape (or Original People) were the first residents of the area that became Toms River, occupying the land for thousands of years before Europeans arrived.

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Some of the Lenape's former foot paths are still used as roads today. Old Freehold Road, which connects Toms River and Freehold, was a former Lenni Lenape foot path, which later became a stagecoach route, according to Mutter.

2. Sometime between 1614 and 1685, Europeans settled in the area near the Toms River. By about 1685, Thomas Luker, an Englishman, lived along a tributary of the Toms River, behind what is now the post office, on Water Street.

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The Toms River was then known as Goose Creek, and Luker operated a small ferry across it. He married Princess Anne, daughter of the local Lenni Lenape chief.

The name, "Tom's River," first appears on a map in 1712, Mutter said.

3. On June 24, 1767, Dover Township was born when New Jersey's Royal Governor, William Franklin, signed the charter creating the township that had been approved by the Colonial Legislature. Franklin was Ben Franklin's son, and remained a Loyalist – supporting Great Britain – in the Revolutionary War.

No one is sure where the name Dover originated, though some believe residents of the area may have come from Dover in Great Britain. Dover Township was carved from the then-massive Shrewsbury Township.

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The original Dover Township included present-day Brick, Berkeley, Lakewood, Jackson and Manchester.

Dover Township became Toms River Township after voters approved a name-change ballot question in 2006.

4. Toms River was the scene of a battle that happened after a truce had been declared in the Revolutionary War.

During the war, Toms River was home to a major salt works – the Pennsylvania Salt Works – that supplied salt to preserve meat for the American army. It was also home to pirates and privateers who preyed on British shipping.

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On March 24, 1782, the British landed troops near what's now the Thomas A. Mathis Bridge over Barnegat Bay and marched through the woods to Toms River, Mutter said. Eighty British soldiers and 40 Loyalists laid seige to Toms River's blockhouse, a small wood fort that was located at the top of the hill on what's now Robbins Street in the downtown.

After fierce, hand-to-hand fighting, the British overran the block house and its commander, Capt. Joshua Huddy, fled into the woods. Nine patriots were killed in the attack, and Toms River was burned to the ground. Only two private homes were left standing.

Huddy was later captured and hanged near Sandy Hook, according to "Pirates of New Jersey: Plunder and High Adventure on the Garden State Coastline," by Mark Donnelly and Daniel Diehl.

5. Early Toms River was a busy port and a stopping point for schooners, sloops and whaleboats. An inlet, located at the site of present-day Ortley Beach, provided direct access to the ocean for the town.

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A fierce nor'easter sealed off the inlet in 1812, in spite of the efforts of several local residents, who attempted to reopen it. Shut off from the sea, Toms River's population stagnated. The U.S. Census counted 1,882 residents in 1810.

By 1920, there were only 2,198. The population would not boom in Toms River until after the Garden State Parkway reached Toms River in 1954.

Jean Mikle: 732-643-4050, jmikle@gannettnj.com