Weymouth Township History
Historic fact sheet Historic Photographs History of Weymouth Township by Stephen Csere
By Douglas Yearsley/Township Historian
Click on photographs for larger version.
Back in the mists of time our community was inhabited by stone age people who left us few clues to know them by, except that they were Weymouth Townships first inhabitants. About 600 A.D. an Algonquin speaking people moving from Hudsons Bay through Illinois settled here and replaced the original people. They called themselves Lenni-Lenape which means "original people". It is these late woodland "Indians" which the Dutch explorers found around 1609 when they began to appear off our coast. The Dutch made a half hearted attempt to colonize the South River (Delaware River). They built Fort Nassau in what would be Gloucester County. In our area they left a name; Egg Harbor.
In the late 1630's the Swedish queen wanted colonies and sent ships full of Finns and Swedish settlers to occupy South Jersey which they called New Sweden.
The Dutch, who called here New Netherlands were furious and sent a fleet from New Amsterdam (New York) to reinforce Dutch rule. Many Finns and Swedes moved inland away from the Dutch to here, along the Great Egg Harbor River.
English Quakers started to arrive on the Delaware River. In 1664 after losing two wars, the Dutch turned here over to the English. Charles II has just been returned to the throne after a revolution that killed his father. He gave her as rewards to those who had supported him. South Jersey, then called West Jersey, ended up being given to a group of Quakers to get them and their Democratic ways out of England. They founded Salem, Burlington, and Gloucester counties. Cape May County claimed Great Egg Harbor River, but the area was unmapped and unpopulated.
In 1694 Egg Harbor was given to Gloucester County by the West Jersey Legislature and the same year Gloucester County appointed Arther Powell as constable for Weymouth, making here a "constablewick". The following year Weymouth and other townships were defined, but a clerk turned" the new Weymouth Township" into "New Waymouth Township" as it would stay for 16 years. The people did not accept the new name and the minutes of the Grand Jury ruled Gloucester County used the terms Egg Harbor and New Waymouth interchangeably. All historians agree Weymouth or New Waymouth was a Quaker name for the area now comprising Atlantic County. Between 1715 and 1774 the whole area was lumped under the term Egg Harbor or Great Egg Harbor.
All local business was put on hold because of the Revolutionary War in which here played a pivotal role in the American victory. The privateers sailed from our rivers brought all British commerce to a halt and made the war so expensive that is lost support in England. More battles were fought in New Jersey than any other state., ten battles in Gloucester County alone. King George called Egg Harbor "A nest of rebels"
After independence Gloucester County began to fix the boundaries between its townships that it had put off during the war. In 1798 Weymouth Township was apportioned a third of the territory we now call Atlantic County. Weymouth Township helped found the Federal government of the new nation.
Around 1800 three partners began an extensive iron producing operation in Weymouth Township and named it for us. The ironworks flourished and in an attempt to consolidate their power the owners formed a new township encompassing all the are beds, water power, forests, and river ports they could grab. In 1813 their Hamilton Township separated from Weymouth Township.
The other iron operations in Weymouth Township were Etna Furnace founded in 1816 near Head of the River. It closed in 1832. There was also a smaller operation at Ingersoll Town, but it vanished without a trace. Monroe Forge, now called Walkers Forge after Lewis M. Walker, in 1816 and has now also vanished.
In the 1820s John Estell founded John Estell and Company in the Stephens Creek area. Estells had worked for all the great iron works whose ledgers list Thomas Estell, Richard Estell, Daniel Estell, and John.
While the other Estells spent their time working drinking and training with
the militia at Mays Landing, John seemed to learn something from his masters and
founded his own baronial manor. He meant to do iron, but the ore
quality must have been low. Also there was nearby competition at Monroe and
Etna. In 1826 he took on a partner in the glass business named John Scott and
they built a glass factory that produced until 1877. The Estells also built a
sawmill and dabbled in boat building as well as farming. They built a village of
Estellville on their millpond called Lake Rebecca and a mansion that rivaled
Batsto or Weymouth.
Ruins at Weymouth Furnace
Weymouth Township was a shipbuilding center with its many waterways and close timber and iron supply. Boats were built at High Banks Landing, Steelmans Landing, Gibsons Landing, Champions Landing, and Etna.
Schooner
The Estell family ruled a manor like anything out of Norman England full of tenants who owed them everything. Near the end of the 1800’s Anderson Estell Bourgeois began selling off the vast land holdings as farmsteads. Many immigrants from the teeming cities came into Weymouth Township looking for cheap land and elbowroom. Anderson sent his daughter, Rebecca, to college in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and to hear tell this was a mistake for our township.
About this time D.L. Risley of Philadelphia, New York, and
London, a real estate speculator and railroad investor came
upon the scene. He
knew the railroad was coming between Richland and Tuckahoe through vast tracts
of virgin land. The railroad came in 1893 and two Risley colonies, Milmay and
Estelle sprang up in 1896. A year later Dorothy was christened and the Estells
were faced with a population not beholden to them. Risley also sold to
immigrants and city dwellers by making the most outlandish claims for local
lots. He claimed that we had a year round growing season and a sea view. (so
what is new about a lying developer !)
Risley Station (Estell Manor) 1921
In
1917 the government and the Bethlehem Company bought up huge areas in Weymouth
Township and moved in the Bethlehem Loading Company to load shells for the
allied war effort in World War 1. This also changed us forever. We lost many old
farms and gained a city, Belcoville with a population of over 9,000 soon
dominated Weymouth township politics. Just as fast as the industrial giant was
born, it died. The war ended soon after the loading plant was in operation.
Belcoville Fire Company 1925
By now the population of Weymouth Township had
shifted from Corbin City, Estellville and Risley to Dorothy and Belcoville. It
was more than the old timers could take and in 1922 Corbin City left, Rebecca
Estell (Bourgeois) Winston was on the Weymouth Township Committee and followed
the Corbin City cession carefully. Two years later she led all the people
beholden to her family and incorporated most of old Weymouth into Estell Manor
City. The people in Belcoville and
Dorothy didn't seem to care since they were
not from Weymouth Township. Mrs. Winston sat in the front room of the Estell
mansion and with a red pencil included as much of the old township as she dared,
even following the streams to their sources and choosing who to let into the new
city and who to leave out. Neighbors on the same street were separated. The
legislature of New Jersey went along with this madness because they simply did
not care who suffered in a place they had forgotten existed. The rest, as they
say, is history.
Eckels' Hotel, Dorothy, 1912