Aberdeen Township, New Jersey
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Aberdeen Township is a Township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 17,454.
Aberdeen Township is part of the Bayshore Regional Strategic Plan, an effort by nine municipalities in northern Monmouth County to reinvigorate the area's economy by emphasizing the traditional downtowns, dense residential neighborhoods, maritime history, and the natural beauty of the Raritan Bay coastline.
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[edit] Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 20.1 km² (7.8 mi²). 14.3 km² (5.5 mi²) of it is land and 5.7 km² (2.2 mi²) of it (28.61%) is water.
Cliffwood Beach (2000 Census population of 3,538) and Strathmore (6,740) are census-designated places and unincorporated areas located within Aberdeen Township
[edit] Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000, there were 17,454 people, 6,421 households, and 4,770 families residing in the township. The population density was 1,216.4/km² (3,152.2/mi²). There were 6,558 housing units at an average density of 457.1/km² (1,184.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the township was 78.82% White, 12.02% African American, 0.14% Native American, 5.51% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 1.75% from other races, and 1.75% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.02% of the population.
There were 6,421 households out of which 34.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.2% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.7% were non-families. 20.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.14.
In the township the population was spread out with 24.5% under the age of 18, 6.2% from 18 to 24, 35.0% from 25 to 44, 24.0% from 45 to 64, and 10.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 95.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.4 males.
The median income for a household in the township was $68,125, and the median income for a family was $76,648. Males had a median income of $51,649 versus $35,707 for females. The per capita income for the township was $28,984. About 3.8% of families and 4.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.1% of those under age 18 and 4.6% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] Government
[edit] Local government
On November 3, 1964, the citizens of Aberdeen Township voted to change the Township Committee form of government, in force since 1857, to the Council-Manager form, under the Optional Municipal Charter Law, also known as the Faulkner Act. In this Council-Manager form, all policy making power is concentrated in the council. The Mayor is a member of the Council and presides over its meetings. The Manager, appointed by the council and fully accountable to it, is the municipal chief executive and administrative official. Aberdeen Township is one of over forty municipalities in New Jersey with this form of government.
A seven-member Township Council, including Mayor, is elected at large for staggered, four-year terms of office in partisan elections held in November. The current Mayor is David Sobel. The members of the Township Council includes Deputy Mayor Wilhelmina Gumbs, Owen Drapkin, Nicholas Minutolo, Joseph Raymond, Thomas Perry and Vincent Vinci.[1]
Day-to-day administration of the Township is managed by a full time manager. The current Township Manager is Stuart Brown.[2]
[edit] Federal, state and county representation
Aberdeen Township is in the Sixth Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 13th Legislative District.[3]
New Jersey's Sixth Congressional District, covering portions of Middlesex County and Monmouth County, is represented by Frank Pallone (D). New Jersey is represented in the Senate by Frank Lautenberg (D, Cliffside Park) and Robert Menendez (D, Hoboken).
The 13th legislative district of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by Joseph M. Kyrillos (R, Middletown Township) and in the Assembly by Amy Handlin (R, Middletown Township) and Samuel D. Thompson (R, Old Bridge Township). The Governor of New Jersey is Jon Corzine (D, Hoboken).
Monmouth County is governed by a five-member Board of Chosen Freeholders. Monmouth County's Freeholders are Freeholder Director William C. Barham, Freeholder Deputy Director Robert D. Clifton, Lillian G. Burry, Anna C. Little and Theodore J. Narozanick.
[edit] Education
Aberdeen is part of the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District, together with the neighboring community of Matawan. The district is comprised of seven schools which are as follows (with 2003-04 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics):
Preschool
- Cambridge Park Developmental Learning Center (Preschool; 73 students)
Elementary Schools
- Ravine Drive Elementary School (Grades K-3; 420 students)
- Strathmore Elementary School (Grades K-3; 494 students)
- Cliffwood Elementary School (Grades K-3; 417 students)
- Lloyd Road Elementary School (Grades 4-5; 512 students)
Middle School
- Matawan Aberdeen Middle School (Grades 6 - 8; 963 students)
High School
- Matawan Regional High School (Grades 9 - 12; 1,015 students)
The MARSD Central Offices are located at 1 Crest Way, in Aberdeen.
[edit] History
Aberdeen Township derived its name from "New Aberdeen," a name for a settlement established in Northwestern Monmouth County in the 1680s by Quakers and Presbyterians who fled Scotland to avoid religious persecution.
Those who settled in this area developed into the Lenni Lenape Native Americans. About the year 1000, an agricultural society developed, and small villages dotted what was to become New Jersey. The Lenape began a westward retreat in the face of European settlement and disease beginning in the late seventeenth century, beginning in Monmouth County by the mid-eighteenth century. Although the Lenape presently live in Ontario and Oklahoma, their legacy survives in such names as Mohingson, Luppatatong and Matawan Creeks and Raritan Bay.
The earliest known attempt at European settlement was in 1650 under the Dutch, when the south side of Raritan Bay was purchased from the Lenni Lenape. No known attempt was made to make good on settling this area, and in 1664 the entire area came under English possession. The earliest English land grant in Aberdeen was in 1677 when Sir George Carteret granted 36 acres (146,000 m²) to Jonathan Holmes. This is in present-day Oakshades on Mohingson Creek.
In 1684, Surveyor General Thomas Rudyard received a grant of 1038 acres (4.2 km²) on Raritan Bay and Matawan Creek, the present location of Cliffwood and Cliffwood Beach. Owing to Rudyard's high office, this was quite controversial, and in 1685, the Board of Proprietors issued an order regarding the laying out of land. Section 7 addressed questionable activity such as Rudyard's, and he sold his land to his son-in-law, Samuel Winder.
The 1680's saw an influx of Scottish immigrants fleeing religious persecution in response to a 1683 book by George Scott extolling the virtues of Scottish settlement in East Jersey. In 1701, a village site of 100 acres (405,000 m²) was granted by the Proprietors to 24 Scottish settlers of the area. These men and six others also purchased a landing site on Matawan Creek.
The village site eventually came to be called Mount Pleasant, and the landing, as it became an important shipping point for the produce of Middletown Township, became Middletown Point. A third, very scattered settlement developed in the eighteenth century west of Matawan Creek, and was called Matawan or Matavan.
Since 1693, what was to become Aberdeen Township remained part of Middletown Township which, at the time, consisted of what is now Aberdeen, Holmdel Township, Hazlet Township, Middletown (including Sandy Hook), Matawan Borough, Keyport, Union Beach, Keansburg, Atlantic Highlands, Highlands and a sliver of Colts Neck Township. It originally extended as far northwest as Cheesequake Creek, that portion being ceded to Middlesex County in 1710.
By 1848, Middletown was considered too large and unwieldy, and legislation was passed dividing it into two halves, the western half to be a new municipality, Raritan Township. In 1857, Raritan was further divided. Legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Beers passed the State Assembly and Senate, was signed by Governor of New Jersey William A. Newell, and on February 23, 1857, Matavan Township was incorporated. This included the village of Middletown Point, Mt. Pleasant, and Matavan. The Township was named for the creek as well as the village of Matavan. The spelling of "Matawan" or "Matavan" had been interchangeable, however, when the act was published "Matavan", a Lenape word meaning "where two rivers come together" had been used.
In 1865, due to postal confusion with Middletown, the Middletown Point post office was renamed "Matawan", to reflect the name of the Township. This section is the present downtown area of Matawan Borough. In 1882, the spelling of the Township was officially changed to "Matawan".
When the railroads were built in the 1870s several stations were established. As the station at Main Street was to be "Matawan", the one at Cliffwood Avenue had to be something else, although the old name "Matavan" was still applied to that area. To avoid near duplication, "Hutschler's Crossing" was briefly used; the railroad then changed the station name to "Cliffwood", after the coastal area of the Township.
In 1885, the Cliffwood post office was established and the name of the old Matavan settlement passed into obsolescence. That same year, the former Middletown Point section, which had adopted the name "Matawan", was incorporated by referendum as the Borough of Matawan. Originally a self-governing district within the Township, the Borough gained full municipality status in 1896.
In response to demand, a post office was established at Mount Pleasant in 1889. As that name was in use elsewhere, a new name was needed. "Freneau" was chosen, in honor of Philip Morin Freneau, the "Poet of Revolution," and a former Mount Pleasant resident who is buried in the area. This post office has since been closed.
The twentieth century saw several major developments in the Township. The 1920s gave us Cliffwood Beach, which was originally a resort community until after World War II when year-round homes were the norm. River Gardens developed in the late 1940s, and the 1960s brought Strathmore, which more than doubles the Township's population and transformed a farming community into a bustling suburb.
On November 8, 1977, the residents of Matawan Township voted to change the name of the Township to create a community identity separate from that of Matawan Borough. The residents voted to call their community Aberdeen Township. Officials believed the new name would draw attention to the Township, as it is listed first alphabetically among New Jersey's 566 municipalities.
Today, Aberdeen is a suburban Township of 5.4 square miles containing a mix of residence, light industry and shopping centers. Sections of the Township include Cliffwood, Cliffwood Beach, Freneau, Oakshades, River Gardens, Strathmore and Woodfield. The population is approximately 17,000 and there are three postal ZIP codes which service the Township: 07721, 07735 and 07747.
The Township is served by two volunteer fire companies, the Aberdeen Township Hose and Chemical Co. No. 1, organized in 1918, and the Cliffwood Volunteer Fire Co., organized in 1927. Two volunteer First Aid Squads response to the community's emergency medical needs; the Aberdeen Township First Aid and Rescue Squad, organized in 1954, and the South Aberdeen Emergency Medical Service, organized in 1970. A Full time Police Department was established in 1935.
The Henry Hudson Trail is a 9-mile paved trail built on a former Central Railroad of New Jersey right-of-way and extending from Aberdeen Township east to Atlantic Highlands.
[edit] Trivia
- The 2003 movie, A Taste of Better Days a nine-minute film, was shot in the Avalon at Aberdeen Station apartment complex on Lower Main Street, in both the lobby and the clubhouse. Residents had to be taken out of the building so there wouldn't be any noise. The residents didn't agree, so a lot the extras in the movie during the coffee house scene are residents of the complex.
- In an issue of MAD Magazine, there is a spoof of A Series of Unfortunate Events books. On the "Letter to the editor" page, the editor is told directions to find a clue at the Clearview Cinemas on New Jersey Route 34, next to El's Bagels (a bagel store chain in the New York and New Jersey area), and buy a children's ticket to Gigli, where a bag under the seat would contain a clue. Ironically, all these locations mentioned are in Aberdeen. This could be due that the author of that spoof, a MAD Magazine writer, lives in Aberdeen Township.
[edit] Notable residents
Notable residents of Aberdeen Township include:
- David L. Smith, creator of the Melissa worm first identified in March 1999.[4] Smith was sentenced in 2002 to serve 20 months in a federal prison.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Aberdeen Township Municipal Government, accessed September 15, 2006
- ^ Township Manager, accessed October 16, 2006
- ^ League of Women Voters: 2006 New Jersey Citizen's Guide to Government, p. 54, accessed August 30, 2006
- ^ Creator of "Melissa" Computer Virus Pleads Guilty to State and Federal Charges, United States Department of Justice press release dated December 9, 1999
- ^ Creator of Melissa Computer Virus Sentenced to 20 Months in Federal Prison, United States Department of Justice press release dated May 1, 2002
[edit] External links
- Aberdeen Township website
- Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District
- Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District's 2004-2005 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education
- National Center for Education Statistics data for the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District
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