Gloucester County Courthouse built in 1787.
Present day Gloucester County Courthouse.
At one point Gloucester County extended from the Delaware to the Atlantic, the width of the state in South Jersey. Quite a mass of land. Perhaps, too much.
Turns out the legislature approved – would coax be an apt description? – a county land reduction. It wasn’t like the county board of freeholders – now the board of commissioners – posted a classified selling pieces of itself. The decrease made practical sense in the 19th century.
A resident from the hinterlands and waterfronts had quite the trek to the county seat of Woodbury for pressing legal matters back then. After all, there was no New Jersey Turnpike or Atlantic City Expressway. Come to think of it, there were no cars, just horses. So, a relief request shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Most of these and other facts in this story came courtesy of a series of independent histories of the various counties, published around the dawn of the 20th century. Barbara Price, librarian with the Gloucester County Historical Society, curated the volumes to highlight the pertinent sections.
Gloucester County formed in 1692 without benefit of the legislature. But the state lawmakers set its boundaries, which didn’t get to the sea quite yet. In 1710, the Egg Harbor Township region was incorporated as part of Gloucester County, thus reaching the ocean.
The first land reduction transaction occurred in 1837 when the legislature voted to break off a chunk of Gloucester on its Eastern end to form Atlantic County. And in 1844, lawmakers took away more acreage to the north to produce Camden County.
And just like that Gloucester lost what it never knew it had: Atlantic City, Cherry Hill, Longport, Voorhees, Hi-Nella, and a bunch of other communities soon to make their mark, among other points of interest. By the way, all that oceanfront property they gave up consisted in large measure of mosquito-ridden swamps. But oceanfront property none the less, and by then, Cape May City proved there was a market for oceanfront property.
In 1837, prior to Atlantic County’s formation, that particular area consisted of four townships: Egg Harbor, Weymouth, Hamilton and Galloway. The barrier islands had yet to earn a name or standing. After Gloucester County donated Atlantic County, Galloway gave up a piece of itself for Mullica Township, Mullica broke off Hammonton and in 1854, Egg Harbor Township set off Atlantic City.
Throughout the 1800s, the four townships divvied up land to create cities and boroughs.
The development of Camden County ran into more difficulty than that of Atlantic County.
One of more practical reasons for pulling land for Camden County in 1844 had to do with the possibility of moving the county seat to Camden. The legislature voted on this in 1824 ordering an election among residents. But the election favored keeping Woodbury as the county seat.
Still, the rapid growth in population in northern Gloucester called for a new county. So in March 1844, the legislature approved placing Camden, Waterford, Newton, Union, Delaware, Gloucester and Washington townships into the new Camden County. The bill passed the Assembly by a single vote.
The courthouse remained in Woodbury. So did the county seat. It was already built and in the center of the population, officials say.
Initial discussions for the new county took place in 1837. The name was going to be Delaware, but the Camden name already worked its way into the lexicon.
Like Atlantic County, the public property ended up divided between the two counties, and money apportioned accordingly.
In the final analysis, Monroe and Washington townships reverted back to Gloucester County. Gloucester population rose from 3,368 in 1790 to 25,886 in 1880 but had been as high as 28,431 in 1830 before the creation of Camden and Atlantic counties left Gloucester with 14,655 in 1850.
Gloucester attempted to re-annex most of Camden County’s portions of Delaware – now Cherry Hill – and all of Camden City in 1845. It failed. An effort a year later sought to lump Franklin, Washington, Gloucester and Winslow townships into a new county called Washington. Also failed.
Getting Camden County settled was also marred by charges including voter fraud.
In 1845, county officials met at White Horse Tavern in Gloucester Township to talk about where to locate new county buildings. An initial vote scored 19 for Haddonfield and 10 for Long- a- Coming. In a second vote later that year, Camden drew most votes. In another vote in April 1846, Camden drew 963 votes with Mt. Ephraim 427, Haddonfield 46. Since Camden didn’t get a majority yet another vote took place in June. Camden received 1,434 second to the 1,498 for Long-a-Coming, which developed plans for buildings, a courthouse, and a jail. Long-a-Coming is now known as Berlin Borough. I like the old name better too.
Then came a preliminary injunction as accusations of election fraud surfaced. I’m not making this up. Lawsuits ensued. And were settled. Construction bids were accepted, and Long-a-Coming would be the county seat.
Friends of Camden convinced lawmakers to hold another election with Camden, Haddonfield and Long-a-Coming. The latter finished third, well behind Camden. You can predict what happened next. More fraud charges.
The residents of Camden County petitioned the legislature to pick a site for the public buildings at least five miles from Camden, but the sheriff filed a cause to determine why not Camden. Another election and Camden won out and in 1852 the buildings were laid out, with the courthouse first.
What if the state declined to act on the land giveaways. Or Gloucester County successfully fought to keep all that property intact rather than severing off chunks of itself.
“There would be more tax revenue,” Gloucester County administrator Chad M. Bruner said. “But there would also be many more costs associated with more land mass that encompasses more housing and development, more park systems to maintain, more roads and bridges to maintain, an expansion of public health services, more services to provide to senior residents such as meal programs, medical transportation, and more EMS stations and staffing as well as dispatching operations to name a few.”
And schools? They might be radically changed, Bruner added, “They may have followed more of a county-wide system.”
The county government would be more akin to state government. “It would be more of a centralized county base of operation with less municipal home rule other than just planning and zoning requirements of the community,” Bruner said.
Then again, the land diet offered benefits to the county. “Running a county of 300,000 residents versus over 1.1 million and 322 miles of roads versus approximately 1,100 miles would entail less aggravation, Bruner said. In addition, when you add in the significant number of expanded services, triple or quadruple the amount of staff needed, the casino industry, an airport, beaches and other entertainment venues it would be a massive governmental territory to be responsible for.
Yet planned “over time as it grew, we would look to appropriately consolidate and regionalize services like we do today,” Bruner said.
As it turned out, the land reallocation created three unique counties out of one, Price said.
“Camden County probably has more business and industry and is just over the bridge and the river from Philadelphia,” she said. “Atlantic County has the obvious attractions of the beaches, boardwalk and casinos. Gloucester County is a mix of large and small business, small towns and agriculture and riverfront as well.”
The three books used to layout the formation of two counties included History of the Counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, by Thomas Cushing, M.D. and Charles E. Sheppard, Esq.; The History of Camden County, New Jersey by George R. Powell; The Daily Union History of Atlantic City and County, New Jersey, by John F. Hall.
