Medford, New Jersey
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Medford is a Township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 22,253.
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[edit] Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 103.1 km² (39.8 mi²). 101.8 km² (39.3 mi²) of it is land and 1.3 km² (0.5 mi²) of it (1.23%) is water.
Medford Township borders Evesham Township, Mount Laurel Township, Lumberton Township, Southampton Township, Tabernacle Township, Shamong Township, and Camden County.
Medford Lakes is an independent municipality within the boundaries of Medford Township.
[edit] History
The area known as Medford was sold to Samual Coles in 1670, in all it consisted of 900 acres (3.6 km²). Within the next few years the Braddocks, Picketts, Strattons, Branins and Wilkins families moved to the area (many of whom continue to live in the area today). Upper Evesham as it was then known, continued to grow from scattered homesteads into a small village. Many of the building and roads built between the sale of the land and the American Revolutionary War are still in existence, which include Oliphant's Mill, Christopher's Mill and the Shamong Trail (now known as Stokes Road). After the American Revolution, Medford struggled as a viable village and it wasn't until March of 1847 that Medford was set apart from Evesham Township and incorporated as its own township.
However it was not until after the Civil War that the town began to expand and grow. Its location along a major rail route, the Camden-Atlantic line, increased trade and Medford expanded at a rapid rate. By the 1920s the rail line had been dismantled and the mill industry was in decline, but Medford's proximity to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden County allowed for the township's growth to continue as many families moved from the city and into a more rural area.
- These excerpts of Medford's history are presented with the permission of the Medford Historical Society. The society endeavors to stimulate interest in local history and invites everyone to attend their meetings on the first Tuesday of each month at 8:00 pm at Medford Leas on Route 70. You may also write to them at P.O. Box 362, Medford, NJ 08055.
1670 - William Penn and others, acting for Edward Billynge, sells 900 acres of land -- what is now known as Medford Township -- to Samuel Coles. Other large land owners in the area during that time were Simon Bozorth, John Goslin, John Haines and William Hewlings. The Braddocks, Pricketts, Wilkins, Strattons and Branins were among many who came to the area during the next few years. John Goslin started a sawmill which was later purchased by David Oliphant. The Oliphant Mill Site is at the intersection of Hartford and Taunton Roads. Joseph Hewlings' mill was later known as Christopher's Mill and portions remain at the Tuckerton and Christopher's Mill Roads site.
1767 - Medford, then known as Upper Evesham, began to resemble a village with a schoolhouse that was also used as the Friends Meeting. The Shamong Trail (which we now know as Stokes Road) had grown from the footpath that the Indians used to become a narrow, sandy, soggy and sometimes impassable road between Burlington and the busy seaport of Clamtown (Tuckerton). The Village continued to develop through the 1780's largely due to the founding of the Etna and Taunton furnaces by Charles Read. Etna furnace (Medford Lakes) went out of blast in 1773 but the grist and sawmill operated into the 20th century. The Taunton furnace supplied shot and shell to the Continental armies and Adonijah Peacock manufactured gunpowder for Washington's armies at his farm on what is now Branin Road. He was killed when gunpowder he was drying in his kitchen exploded. Adonijah is buried in the Peacock graveyard in Chairville. This excerpt is from John Hunt's diary:
20th of the 1st mo 1777- This day Nijah Peacock was buried, a very ingenious man, in Evesham. He had since the wars erected a powder mill and carried it on to considerable perfection till one day he was at work amongst his powder and by some means it catched fire and killed him and hurt several of his family besides. It was said that the roof of the house was blown off and very much shattered to pieces with the blast of the powder; however the report of the powder was heard very heavy like a great cannon ten miles round. I really thought that it had been a cannon and I was about ten miles from the place. His powder catched fire once before and he narrowly escaped.[1]
1800's - After the Revolution and into the 1800's,Upper Evesham struggled as a little village with a few houses strung along Main Street. One is J. Stanley Braddock's residence at 70 South Main Street; another is the John Reilly house at 53 South Main Street. In 1800, an important merchant named Mark Reeve arrived in Upper Evesham. He built the first machine in the country to manufacture cut nails (not patented). As a merchant of sundry goods he kept his store specializing in tobaccotwists and making cut nails on the corner of Friends Avenue and South Main Street. It now sits on Dr. Jennings' farm on Jennings Road and is appropriately called "The Nail House". It was Mark Reeve who, as the story goes, called a town meeting to propose the name Medford after a visit to Medford, Massachusetts. In 1820, when the Post Office opened, the town was officially called Medford of Upper Evesham. On February 4, 1847, Medford Township was "set apart from" Evesham by act of legislature. The first township meeting was held at the Cross Roads (County Route 541 and Church Road) on March 9, 1847. The seat of township government remained there for several years.
One of Medford's biggest boons began with the coming of the railroad in 1869. A glass factory on Mill Street was booming and there were sawmills and grist mills running full tilt. Now they had an easy way of getting their products to Philadelphia and New York -- Medford was in its "heyday". In 1889 the Camden and Atlantic Railroad came to town connecting Camden and Medford along a route now occupied by Route 70. The medical offices at 69 North Main Street, formerly the police station until the new Public Safety Building was built, was the passenger station for this line.
1900's - During the 1920's passenger service declined with the coming of the automobile; the glass factory had closed because of labor trouble and high costs of automating; and, Western sawmills were putting local sawyers out of business. In 1927, passenger service was discontinued and the tracks of the Camden branch were torn up when Route 70 was built. Kirby's Mill, originally known as Haine's Mill, was an operating saw and grist mill long after Medford's many other mills had shut down. Kirby's Mill ran on water until 1961 when it was converted to electricity. In 1972 the mill was entered on the National Register of Historic Places.
[edit] Demographics
As of the census² of 2000, there were 22,253 people, 7,946 households, and 6,285 families residing in the township. The population density was 218.5/km² (566.0/mi²). There were 8,147 housing units at an average density of 80.0/km² (207.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the township was 96.74% White, 0.76% African American, 0.12% Native American, 1.47% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.28% from other races, and 0.59% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.13% of the population.
There were 7,946 households out of which 38.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 70.8% were married couples living together, 6.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 20.9% were non-families. 17.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.77 and the average family size was 3.16.
In the township the population was spread out with 26.8% under the age of 18, 5.4% from 18 to 24, 26.7% from 25 to 44, 30.4% from 45 to 64, and 10.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 93.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.1 males.
The median income for a household in the township was $83,059, and the median income for a family was $97,135. Males had a median income of $69,786 versus $37,012 for females. The per capita income for the township was $38,641. About 0.9% of families and 1.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.1% of those under age 18 and 2.2% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] Government
[edit] Local government
Members of the Medford Township Council include Mayor Lisa Post, Deputy Mayor Scott Rudder, Dave Brown, Christopher Myers, and Walter Urban.[2]
[edit] Federal, state and county representation
Medford Township is in the Third Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 8th Legislative District.[3]
New Jersey's Third Congressional District, covering portions of Burlington County, Camden County and Ocean County, is represented by Jim Saxton (R, Mount Holly). New Jersey is represented in the Senate by Frank Lautenberg (D, Cliffside Park) and Robert Menendez (D, Hoboken).
The 8th legislative district of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by Martha W. Bark (R, Mount Laurel) and in the Assembly by Francis L. Bodine (R, Mount Laurel) and Larry Chatzidakis (R, Mount Laurel). The Governor of New Jersey is Jon Corzine (D, Hoboken).
Burlington County is governed by a five-member Board of Chosen Freeholders. Burlington County's Freeholders are Freeholder Director James K. Wujcik, Deputy Freeholder Director William S. Haines, Jr., Dawn Marie Addiego, Vincent R. Farias and Aubrey A. Fenton.
[edit] Education
The Medford Township Public Schools is a K-8 grade public school district, with five elementary schools serving students in kindergarten through fifth grade, a single school serving sixth graders and a school serving seventh and eighth graders.
[edit] Kindergarten to 5th Grade
- Chairville Elementary School, 36 Chairville Road. (609) 654-9610
- Cranberry Pines School, 400 Fairview Road. (856) 983-2861
- Kirby's Mill Elementary School, 151 Hartford Road. (609) 953-7014
- Milton H. Allen School, 24 Allen Avenue. (609) 654-4203
- Taunton Forge School, Evergreen Trail. (609) 654-6723
[edit] Middle schools
- Maurice And Everett Haines Elementary School [1] (6th grade), 162 Stokes Road. (609) 654-4056
- Medford Memorial School (7th and 8th grade), 55 Mill Street. (609) 654-7707
[edit] High schools
High school students in Medford Township and Medford Lakes attend Shawnee High School as part of the Lenape Regional High School District. The regional high school district includes 4 high schools. Cherokee High School serves Evesham Township. Lenape High School serves Mount Laurel Township. Seneca High School serves Shamong Township, Southampton Township, Tabernacle Township and Woodland Township.
- Shawnee High School, Tabernacle Road. (609) 654-7544
- Burlington County Institute of Technology, Hawkins Road. (609) 654-0200
[edit] Parochial School
- St. Mary of the Lakes (K-8), 196 Route 70. (609) 654-2546
[edit] Points of interest
- Lewis W. Barton Arboretum
- Kirby's Mill is a grist mill (flour mill) that has been entered in the National Register of Historic Places
[edit] Notes
- ^ Hunt
- ^ Medford Township Council and Administration, accessed March 16, 2006
- ^ League of Women Voters: 2006 New Jersey Citizen's Guide to Government, p. 60, accessed August 30, 2006
[edit] References
Hunt, John (1770-1824), John Hunt's journal, Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
[edit] External links
- Township of Medford
- Medford Township Public Schools
- Medford Township Public Schools's 2004-2005 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education
- National Center for Education Statistics data for the Medford Township Public Schools
- Lenape Regional High School District
- Medford NJ
