West Jersey To Wetlands Institute (New Jersey)

West Jersey. New Jersey became two colonies in 1674, when John, Lord Berkeley, sold his half of the proprietorship to Quakers led by John Fenwick and Edward Byllynge, a group that became the West Jersey Council of Proprietors. The government of West Jersey subsequently changed hands several times, until it was returned to the British Crown in 1702. The West Jersey Council of Proprietors, with its claims to land, continues to exist today.

Although New Jersey was once again a single royal colony after 1703, the division between east and west continued to be important. The West Jersey Proprietors pushed, unsuccessfully, for completion of a boundary line, begun in 1743 by John Lawrence, that would have given them more land. They wanted equal representation in the colonial council and insisted that the government meet alternately in Burlington and Perth Amboy. During the Revolution, West Jersey Quakers adhered to pacifism, while the largely Dutch Reform and Presbyterian residents of East Jersey, being closer to the British in New York, felt the brunt of the fighting. Following the war, West Jersey politicians renewed their boundary claims and dominated the first federal election of 1789.

Throughout the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, West Jersey retained its rural nature and distinction as the home of a large number of Quakers. Its old religious and economic ties to Philadelphia continued, but the dividing line was gradually transformed from an east-west to a north-south one.

West Jersey Concessions. Issued in 1676-1677, "The Concessions and Agreements of the Proprietors, Freeholders, and Inhabitants of the Province of West New-Jersey, In America,” commonly known as the West Jersey Concessions, was a system of government and basic laws for the new Quaker colony of West Jersey. The document reflected radical late seventeenth-century political and social theory in its provisions for a strong assembly, weak governor, and trial by jury, and in its prohibition against imprisonment for debt. Even though signed by settlers and proprietors, the concessions were not fully implemented. The authorship of the concessions is disputed. Most historians now give primary credit to Edward Byllynge, one of the proprietors.

West Jersey Council of Proprietors. After John, Lord Berkeley, sold his half of New Jersey to Edward Byllynge and John Fenwick in 1674, the colony was divided into east and west portions. The proprietorship of West Jersey was then in effect turned into a corporation consisting of one hundred shares, with dividends paid in land. The shares were quickly subdivided, resulting in numerous shareholders living in both England and the colony. To maintain control and order, the resident proprietors in 1688 created the West Jersey Council, whose members (eleven at first, then nine) were elected once a year and then met in Burlington at the surveyor general’s office. Participation required ownership of at least 1/32 of a share. Although the proprietors surrendered their claims to the government of West Jersey to the British Crown in 1702, they retained title to the land.

By 2000, the West Jersey Council of Proprietors was the oldest corporation in the United States. Though it owns little land (small, never-surveyed parcels), the council possesses land records that are sometimes used for title searches. It continues to meet annually, even though the records of the ownership of some shares have been lost over time.

West Jersey Society. The West Jersey Society was formed in 1692, when a group of forty-eight London businessmen purchased twenty of the one hundred shares of the West Jersey proprietorship from Dr. Daniel Coxe. With the purchase of the land came the right to govern—a claim contested by the Quaker party for much of the colony’s short existence. In 1702, recognizing its inability to maintain political and social order, the society surrendered its right to govern to the British Crown. For the rest of its existence, which extended into the twentieth century, the society functioned strictly as a joint-stock company, working through local agents to reap the benefits of its land investments.

West Long Branch. 2.83-square-mile borough in Monmouth County. West Long Branch was part of Eatontown Township until 1908, when it voted to establish itself as an independent borough. It began as a crossroads community, with a stagecoach route on the north-south turnpike between the Manasquan and Shrewsbury rivers and an east-west ocean-bound corridor.

The early town-and-country persona of West Long Branch began as land along its northern Long Branch border was developed into estates for wealthy individuals such as pulp publisher Norman Munro, vaudeville hoofer Bessie Clayton, circus clown Dan Rice, copper heir Murray Guggenheim, 1924 Olympic gold-medalist Chet Bowman, and F. W. Woolworth president Hubert Parsons. In 1930, Parsons built the only replica of Versailles in the United States. The mansion, its grounds, and neighboring estate properties comprise the private Monmouth University, which gives West Long Branch its current town-and-gown personality.

Today garden nurseries, playing fields, open space, small farms, and seven different cemeteries help preserve West Long Branch’s original rural character and woodlands. In 2000 its population of 8,258 was 94 percent white. The median household income was $71,852.

West Milford. 80.24-square-mile township in western Passaic County. West Mil-ford was set off from the western portion of Pompton Township in 1834. Situated in the Highlands, the township was home to iron mines. Long Pond Ironworks (established in 1764) is now a state park. In the nineteenth century, agriculture was also important. By the late 1800s, rail access spawned an important resort economy in the township, especially at Greenwood Lake, where ice harvesting was also a major industry. Starting in 1885 the city of Newark began acquisition of its Pequannock Watershed, which included 17,000 acres in the township by 1900. This resulted in the loss of numerous farms, homes, and businesses. However, the town remained an important summer resort area, and residential construction since the 1960s has added to the population.

In 2000, the population of 26,410 was 95 percent white. The median household income was $74,124.

Westminster Choir College. Founded in 1926 by John Finley Williamson, this conservatory, a four-year, private, coeducational institution of higher education, is located in Princeton. The school was originally located in Dayton, Ohio, and moved to Ithaca, New York, three years after its founding before settling at its current location in 1932. The conservatory is dedicated to the study of music in its varied forms on both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Westminster presently serves as the professional music college of Rider University, with which it reached an affiliation agreement in 1992. The institution hosts the Westminster Symphonic Choir and one of the largest summer musical programs in the country.

West New York. 0.9-square-mile town in northern Hudson County, located along the western shore of the Hudson River, on top of the Palisades. Although the town was not incorporated until 1898, the name West New York first appeared on Hudson County maps of the 1850s.

Before European settlement, the area provided game and timber for the Lenape. The first European farm settlements struggled because of the density of the forests and the hard bluestone of the Palisades. In 1872 the first embroidery firms were established, and embroidery grew to become the most important industry in northern Hudson County. Swiss, German, and Swedish immigrants soon gravitated to the region to work in this industry. Succeeding generations of twentieth-century immigrants, including Italians, Eastern Europeans, Latinos, and Asians, continually invigorated the art of embroidery, making designs and techniques reflective of their respective cultures. West New York became known as the embroidery capital of the world. Although most embroidery work is now sent overseas, West New York’s embroidery industry is still highly regarded by New York City fashion designers.

West New York had a resident population in 2000 of 45,768, making it one of the most densely populated municipalities in the nation. The population was 60 percent white, 4 percent black, 3 percent Asian, and 79 percent Hispanic (Hispanics may be of any race). The median household income was $31,980. For complete census figures, see chart, 138.

Weston, Edward (b. May 9, 1850; d. Aug. 20,1936). Electrical engineer, inventor, and industrialist. Edward Weston was born at Brynn Castle, near Wolver Hampton, England, the son of Margaret Jones and Edward Weston, a carpenter and mechanic. His schoolboy interest in the physical sciences suggested a particular career path, but his parents wanted him to be a physician. Weston received his medical diploma in 1870 but, instead of practicing medicine, he sought work in London as a scientist. Sensing few opportunities, he immigrated to New York City.

During the first half of the 1870s Weston lived and worked in New York, and beginning in 1875, he resided in Newark. Weston established an electroplating business in 1872 and five years later formed the Weston Dynamo Electric Machine Company, devoting his energies to manufacturing electroplating dynamos. Changing tack, Weston then tried to develop a system of arc lighting, but attained only modest success. His most noteworthy contract was to illuminate the Brooklyn Bridge. In 1886 Weston started to make electrical measuring instruments, and it is here that he enjoyed his greatest accomplishment and influence.

In 1871 Weston married Wilhelmina Seidel, and together they had two sons. Weston received many honors during his lifetime, including honorary degrees from Stevens Institute of Technology and Princeton University. He helped found the Newark College of Engineering, now known as the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

West Orange. 12.15-square-mile town in Essex County. Eighteenth-century settlers in this rugged and rocky terrain became known as the "Mountain Society.”The township owed its formal creation to a group of residents who seceded from Orange in 1863 and merged with the recently created township of Fair-mount. The area’s expansive vistas, mineral springs, and bucolic setting attracted wealthy nineteenth-century Newarkers and New Yorkers, and encouraged numerous development schemes. Llewellyn Park, a planned, gated residential community established by Llewellyn Haskell in the mid-i850s, designed by architect Alexander Davis, constituted the most noteworthy. Golf courses, amusement parks, and recreational facilities occupied a large land area during the late nineteenth century, but West Orange became perhaps most closely associated with Thomas Alva Edison. The inventor’s manufacturing plant, opened in i887, comprised the town’s largest industry, producing phonographs, dictating machines, alkaline batteries, and numerous other products.

West Orange remained primarily residential, however, especially after automobile and bus transportation made commuting less formidable. Two significant growth spurts, from 1910 to 1930, and from 1950 to 1970, transformed the community into a fairly affluent white-collar suburb with an overwhelmingly native-born white population. Some diversification occurred after 1970.

The 2000 population of 44,943 was 68 percent white, i7 percent black, 8 percent Asian, and i0 percent Hispanic (Hispanics may be of any race). The median household income was $69,254.

West Paterson. 3-square-mile borough on the east bank of the Passaic River, in Passaic County. West Paterson was set off from Little Falls Township, to its south, in 1914. It lies on the opposite side of Garret Mountain from the city of Paterson, so while it shares that city’s name, it is removed from it geographically. Originally an area of farming and dairy production, in the late nineteenth century it became a bucolic suburb of nearby Paterson. In the years after World War II the borough underwent a major commercial boom, with the construction of numerous shopping centers and retail stores. Routes 80 and 46 pass through West Paterson, and good transportation has led to industrial development, including electronics, consumer products, and photographic materials.

In 2000, the population of 10,987 was 87 percent white, 3 percent black, 4 percent Asian, and 10 percent Hispanic (Hispanics may be of any race). The median household income was $60,273.

Exterior of Building 5, Thomas A. Edison’s main laboratory building in West Orange, c. 1887-1888.

Today the borough is primarily a residential community. In 2000 the population of 4,500 was 93 percent white. The median household income was $39,570.

The borough was incorporated in 1920 out of Middle Township, and the first election was held, with 104 names on the voting list. Hann was elected mayor, and later donated land for the West Wildwood Union Church. In 1929 a firehouse was built. Today the community is strictly residential. Children attend schools in Wildwood.

In 2000 the population of 448 was 96 percent white. The median household income was $33,393, according to the 2000 census.

West Windsor. 26-square-mile township at the northeastern edge of Mercer County. West Windsor is bounded on the northeast by the Millstone River, which has separated Mercer and Middlesex counties since 1838, and on the northwest by the Delaware and Raritan Canal (completed in 1834), which has separated West Windsor and Princeton townships since 1855. It is bounded on the southwest by the "Province Line” of 1687, which separated the colonies of East Jersey and West Jersey, and, since 1797, on the east and south by its present borders with East Windsor and Washington townships. Originally named New Windsor and then Windsor, West Windsor Township was officially incorporated in 1797. The township contains the historic "hamlets” of Clarksville, Dutch Neck, Edinburg, Grovers Mill (of "War of the Worlds” fame), Penns Neck, Port Mercer, and Princeton Junction. West Windsor is home to Mercer County Community College and Mercer County Park. West Windsor began as a farming community, but has rapidly transformed into a residential suburb. The township is traversed by two major transportation arteries, providing commuters with access to New York and Philadelphia.

In the 2000 census the township’s population of 21,907 was 72 percent white and 23 percent Asian. The median household income was $116,335.

Westville. 1.35-square-mile borough in Gloucester County. First settled by the British, the borough was named after Thomas West, who built a tavern near Big Timber Creek in the 1700s. Before the Revolution the town was also known as Buck Tavern. The borough was originally three separate villages: Westville, Newbold, and South Westville (also known as

West Wildwood. 0.3-square-mile borough in Cape May County. Surrounded by water, West Wildwood is linked to Wildwood at Maple Avenue by a two-lane bridge, the only access to and from this tiny community. In the late 1890s Warren Hann, the grandson of the one the county’s early glass manufacturers, invested in land west of Five Mile Beach and separated by an inlet, where he intended to establish a new resort community. It was nearly fifteen years before building started, only to be slowed by World War I. By 1918, sixty buildings, including a casino, had been completed.

Westwood. 2.32-square-mile borough in Bergen County. Among Westwood’s earliest industries was the Bogert Mill, on the Musquapsink Brook. Built before 1734, it offered sanctuary to Gen. George Washington’s troops during the Revolution. In 1870 the first train line arrived in Westwood, signaling a new era. The farming village of twenty-five homes soon became a residential community, as the railroad allowed easy commuting to New York City. By 1894, seventeen trains a day came to Westwood, and in 1932 a new station replaced the original wooden depot. Originally a part of Washington Township, Westwood voted in 1894 to become an independent borough, in order to gain control of the school system and the taxes that supported it.

Other early industries included a factory that produced the 3-D stereoscope viewers used to view photographs. The Canvas Theatre was just what the name implies; two other theaters followed it: the Pascack, in 1928, and the Westwood in 1932. Westwood is also home to America’s oldest Chevrolet dealer. Pascack Valley Hospital opened in 1959, through the efforts of Louise Bohlin. She discovered the inadequacy of the four existing Bergen County hospitals, none of which were readily accessible to the Pascack Valley.

In 2000 the population of 10,999 was 87 percent white, 6 percent black, and 4 percent Asian. The median household income was $59,868.

Wetlands. Wetlands are areas that are flooded or saturated by surface or ground water frequently enough and long enough to support vegetation that can exist under saturated soil conditions. They usually include swamps, bogs, wet meadows, and marshes. Precipitation, topography, soil permeability, rock type, and plant cover affect the wetness of an area. In all circumstances, however, the one characteristic common to wetlands is the existence of an ample supply of water. This supply varies due to annual, seasonal, and daily fluctuations; precipitation; inflow and outflow of surface water; exchange of ground water; and evaporation. Hydric soils are the second characteristic associated with wetlands. These soils are saturated for enough time during the growing season to allow anaerobic (absence of oxygen) conditions to develop, leading to the growth of hydrophytic vegetation, the third characteristic associated with wetlands. This specialized type of vegetation can grow in soils that are periodically deficient in oxygen and include nearly seven thousand vascular-type species. Wetlands have numerous values, such as improvement of water quality, flood protection, erosion control, and fish and wildlife habitat maintenance.

The wetlands of New Jersey fall into two major systems: palustrine and estuarine. Palustrine wetlands, consisting mostly of red maple swamp and evergreen forests, are more than twice as abundant as estuarine wetlands, which are primarily salt and brackish marsh along the coast. In terms of the percentage of the land covered by wetlands, the three highest ranked counties are Cape May, Atlantic, and Ocean. Conversely, the three lowest ranked counties are Hunterdon, Passaic, and Union.

Development pressure represents a continuous threat to wetland preservation. In order to protect wetlands, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection regulates delineation procedures and wetland use. All properties in the state that are proposed for development require a determination of the presence or absence of wetlands and, if present, the boundaries of the wetlands must be delineated. Following site investigation and verification by the state, a Letter of Interpretation may be issued for five years to the property owner that will stipulate what portions of the property can be developed.

Wetlands Institute. The Wetlands Institute in Middle Township was founded as a nonprofit, educational organization in 1969 by Herbert Mills to promote the conservation and understanding of wetlands and coastal ecosystems. There is an exhibit hall of live animals and dioramas depicting the life found within the salt marshes, and a deck overlooking six thousand acres of surrounding marsh—an attraction that draws many birdwatchers. The Institute is open to the public year-round, with more than forty thousand people visiting each year, and runs many programs designed for schoolchildren.