Woodbine. 8.0-square-mile borough in Cape May County. The Baron de Hirsch Fund was established in 1891, to aid settlement of displaced Eastern European Jewry. That same year the fund purchased 5,300 acres of scrubland in Woodbine, Dennis Township, Cape May County. The Borough of Woodbine was incorporated in 1903. Immigrants were offered acreage, low-interest mortgages, and training in farming techniques. Local officials were elected from Woodbine’s all-Jewish, Yiddish-speaking population. The Woodbine Brotherhood Synagogue and cemetery were built in 1893; final religious services were held in 1999. The Woodbine Agricultural School, the first secondary agricultural school in the United States, opened in October 1894. It was administered by agricultural scientist Dr. Hirsch Sabsovich, the catalyst of the school’s advanced science program. Classes included general farming, English, and machine shop. Graduates of this program included Dr. Jacob G. Lipman, dean of Rutgers Agricultural School, I9I5-I939, and Dr. Jacob Pincus, who developed the birth control pill. Local pioneer aviator Henry de Cinque established the Woodbine Airport and flying school. The fund subsidized industrial development to provide economic growth. Problems led to the demise of this effort, until the fund completely withdrew support of Woodbine in December 1942. Over time the town’s population became ethnically diverse.
In 2000 the community of 2,716 residents claimed a population mix of 53 percent white, 32 percent black, and 21 percent Hispanic (Hispanics may be of any race). The median household income was $30,298.
David and Dora Breslow, two of the original settlers of Woodbine, immigrated from Gorodok, Vitebsk, White Russia (Belarus), 1905.
Woodbridge. -square-mile township in Middlesex County. Woodbridge is thought to be named for the Rev. John Woodbridge of Newbury, Massachusetts, the town from which the Puritan settlers who chartered the community in 1669 came. It is today the state’s fifth-largest municipality and consists of Iselin, Colonia, Avenel, Keasbey, Sewaren, Hopelawn, Fords, Port Reading, Menlo Park, and Woodbridge proper. The first influx of residents came after World War II, when many returning servicemen were able to acquire GI mortgage loans and buy a single-family home. In the 1970s, as land in the northern part of the state became increasingly expensive, Woodbridge’s population more than doubled. Commuters and corporations viewed the township as a prime location between New York and Newark to the north and Trenton and Philadelphia to the south. Sometimes referred to as the "Crossroads of New Jersey,” the township is known for Metropark Station, a major commuter railway hub, and as the site where several prominent highways cross, including the New Jersey Turnpike, the Garden State Parkway, and Routes 1, 9,35,287, and 440. Other focal points are Woodbridge Center, built by the Rouse Company in 1971 as one of the state’s first indoor shopping malls, and the Arthur Kill, a tributary that allows oil tankers and other ships to sail between Newark Bay to Raritan Bay. The community supports three high schools, thirty-three churches and synagogues, and nine fire stations.
The 2000 population of 97,203 was 71 percent white, 9 percent black, 14 percent Asian, and 9 percent Hispanic (Hispanics may be of any race). The household median income was $60,683.
Woodbury. 2.08-square-mile city and county seat of Gloucester County. Woodbury was first settled by Europeans in 1683. By 1715, it had developed into a center of activities for Quakers. The city’s proximity to Philadelphia and the Delaware River made it a focus of activity during the American Revolution; at different points during the war, Woodbury was occupied by both British and American forces.
Woodbury was incorporated in 1871. The city’s period of greatest economic and population growth began in 1880, when a thriving patent and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry developed. Rapid growth continued through the turn of the twentieth century. In 2000, the city was mostly residential, and undertook the revitalization of its Broad Street shopping district. Woodbury’s 2000 population of 10,307 was 72 percent white and 23 percent black. The median household income was $41,827. For complete census figures see chart, 138.
Woodbury Heights. 1.8-square-mile borough in Gloucester County. Six Philadelphia and Camden real estate developers in 1861 purchased 400 acres in Deptford Township and named the town Woodbury Heights. In a newspaper ad for prospective homeowners, the businessman described its high ground ("100 feet above tide-water”), its location (thirty minutes from Philadelphia by train), and its proximity to existing electric and gas plants. The auction held to sell the land attracted nearly 130 buyers. The developers mapped out streets, built homes, and finished a community hall in 1894. In 1915 it was officially incorporated as a borough. Today, it is still largely residential, with few businesses. Its high ground (from Route 45 motorists can see Philadelphia), location near trains and highways, and intimate size attract homeowners as these attributes did in 1861.
In 2000 the population of 2,988 was 96 percent white. The median household income was $63,266.
Woodcliff Lake. 3. 54-square-mile borough in Bergen County. Named for its location on a lake in the woods under a cliff, Woodcliff Lake is part of an area generally known as the Pascack Valley. Originally the Lenape Indians settled this fertile area. When the Dutch arrived, they traded with the Lenape for beaver pelts. As the beaver trade diminished, the settlers transformed the rolling hills beyond the Palisades into a productive agrarian society.
In 1894, Woodcliff Lake and many other settlements separated from Washington Township. At that time the borough was incorporated under the name of Woodcliff. The word "Lake” was appended in 1910, to match the name of the post office. Today, Woodcliff Lake thrives as a fully developed residential community. Businesses in the borough include the Ingersoll Rand World headquarters, the BMW North American headquarters, a Hilton hotel, the Perillo Tours corporate headquarters, and Sony. There are two large recreational areas in the borough—Wood Dale Park, a fifty-five-acre county park, and the Old Mill Complex—both located on the east side of town. In 2000 the population of 5,745 was 94 percent white. The median household income was $123,022.
Woodhull, Alfred Alexander (b. Apr. 13,1837; d. Oct. 18,1921). U.S. Army surgeon and military hygienist. Alexander Woodhull was born in Princeton to Alfred Alexander and Anna Maria (Salomons) Woodhull. An ancestor, John Witherspoon of Princeton, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Woodhull received his B.A. (1856), M.A. (1859), and honorary LL.D. (1894) from the College of New Jersey (Princeton University), and his M.D. (1859) from the University of Pennsylvania. On December 15, 1868, Wood-hull married Margaret Ellicott of Baltimore; they had no children.
In September 1861, Woodhull was commissioned a medical officer in the regular army, and served with distinction in the Civil, Spanish-American, and Philippine Wars. On April 14,1865, while stationed in Washington, D.C., Woodhull attended Secretary of State William H. Seward after he was stabbed by one of John Wilkes Booth’s coconspirators. Several years later Woodhull played another historic role by bringing John Shaw Billings, army surgeon and medical bibliographer, and the Johns Hopkins Hospital Building Committee together. Billings’s design was accepted in 1876. When the hospital opened in May 1889, it provided the practical clinical experience that previous generations of American physicians had to travel overseas to get.
Although Woodhull published on the nonemetic uses of ipecac, yellow fever, cholera, military clothing, Hospital Corps training, and the Battle of Princeton, his most important contribution to military medicine was as a hygienist. From 1886 to 1890 Wood-hull taught military hygiene to company-grade officers at the U.S. Infantry and Cavalry School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. His textbook, Notes on Military Hygiene for Officers of the Line, based on his lectures, went through four editions (1890,1898,1904,1909), and was the principal reference work for the military hygiene course at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York, from 1906 to 1914.
Maj. Alfred A. Woodhull, c. 1876.
Woodhull published many articles on military hygiene, winning the Gold Medal (1885) and Seaman Prize (1907) of the Military Service Institution. He argued that sanitation was essential for maintaining military effectiveness, and that it was the line officer’s duty to safeguard the health of his troops. Disease prevention was the key. Woodhull’s views were vindicated when the Spanish-American War exposed the culpability of line officers in the 1898 typhoid fever epidemic, and awakened the army to the need for educational reform. "The object… of teaching military hygiene to cadets,” Woodhull wrote, "is to supply them with one more qualification for command, with one more agency of success.” In 1905 military hygiene became an integral part of military science.
After leaving the service, Woodhull returned to Princeton where, from 1902 to 1907, he lectured on hygiene and sanitation at his alma mater. He published a manual for the course titled Personal Hygiene: Designed for Undergraduates (1906). He died in Princeton.
Woodland. 95.38-square-mile township in southeastern Burlington County, bordered by Ocean County on the east. Woodland was formed in 1866 from parts of Pemberton, Shamong, Southampton, and Washington townships. A portion of its land seceded in 1901, to become part of the newly formed Tabernacle Township. The majority of Woodland lies within the Pine Barrens, and much of its acreage is part of the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest. Its central commercial and farming village, the tiny hamlet of Chatsworth, has long been locally called the "capital of the Pines.” From Woodland’s beginning, the local economy has been based on the cultivation of blueberries and cranberries. But in the late 1890s an Italian nobleman, Prince Mario Ruspoli de Poggio-Suassa, acquired substantial holdings in Woodland through marriage. He erected the Chatsworth Club, a resort that attracted the wealthy from Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C. to Chatsworth’s lakes, into the early twentieth century. A one-time carriage house that still stands in Chatsworth is now the target of preservation efforts. Today Chatsworth is a clutch of homes and small businesses near huge freshwater lakes that feed the bogs of A. R. DeMarco and Sons, the town’s largest berry producer. Ocean Spray operates a cranberry transfer station just outside Chatsworth. Development is limited by state and federal Pine Barrens protection guidelines.
The 2000 population of 1,170 was 98 percent white. The median household income was $59,271.
Woodlynne. 0.2-square-mile borough in Camden County. Once part of the area known as Newton Colony, originally settled by Quakers in 1681, Woodlynne separated from Haddon Township in 1901. The borough was the site of Mark Newbie’s bank, the first bank to issue money in America, using Irish pence that Newbie brought from England. It was also the site of Woodlynne Park from 1895 to 1914, an amusement center that featured a carousel and shooting gallery, boating, open-air movie and dance pavilions, and picnic grounds. It drew thousands daily from Philadelphia and surrounding towns. The Woodlynne Log Cabin, built by the Works Progress Administration during the 1930s, is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places and continues to be a meeting place for scouts and other local civic groups. Today the densely populated community has five times the county’s average population per square mile. Taxes on its aging single-family and row homes provide the major source of income for the residential community. There is no industrial or commercial tax base.
The year 2000 population of 2,796 was 48 percent white, 23 percent black, 12 percent Asian, and 21 percent Hispanic (Hispanics may be of any race). The median household income was $39,138. For complete census figures, see chart, 138.
Wood-Ridge. i.i-square-mile borough in Bergen County. In 1669 Capt. John Berry received from the East Jersey proprietors land extending from the Hackensack River to the Passaic and Saddle rivers; he called it New Barbados. In i784 George Brinkerhoff purchased a parcel in present-day Wood-Ridge, becoming the first settler in the area. Lodi Township was carved from New Barbados in i825, and the borough of Wood-Ridge was incorporated in 1894. Its first mayor, Anton Molinari, established a business (the forerunner of Becton-Dickinson) to manufacture surgical instruments. In 1869 the Hackensack and New York Railway came to town, bringing more industry and encouraging residential development with its easy commute to New York City. Anticipating a real estate boom with the opening of the George Washington Bridge, in 1927 Charles Reis turned 110 acres into Sunshine City, a development of 800 mass-produced homes.
Among the early businesses was the Carl-stadt Bottling Works, named for another town but located in Wood-Ridge before i900.In 1942 Wright Aeronautical Corporation, a division of Curtiss-Wright, began making i7,000 aircraft engines for the war effort. Although Curtiss-Wright has left the borough, its facility is now leased by other firms.
Today Wood-Ridge, with its varied architecture, is a community of single-family homes with easy access to New York City by bus and rail. In 2000 the population of 7,644 was 9i percent white. The median household income was $60,949.
Woodruff, Marietta Huntoon Crane (b. May 1837; d. Nov. 6, 1912). Homeopathic physician. Marietta Crane was born in Pine Brook (Montville Township), the daughter of Judge Benjamin Crane and Barbara (Parlaman) Bowlsby. In i86i she married Christopher Denman Woodruff. She began her studies at age thirty-four after the birth of her third child. A graduate of New York Medical College for Women, Woodruff specialized in obstetrics. She advocated natural childbirth and used homeopathy in treating her patients, avoiding the use of drugs, preferring nontoxic medicines intended to stimulate the body’s immune system. For many years she served the residents of Boonton. Her patients included many immigrants from Italy and Eastern Europe.
Woodruff House and Eaton Store Museum. In 1699 John Woodruff was granted a small portion of property on which his heirs built the Woodruff House in 1735. The original structure, with additions made in i790 and i890, now houses eighteenth-and nineteenth-century artifacts. In i900 the Eaton Store was built to sell goods from the Woodruff Farm. Located in Hillside, the museum was acquired by the Hillside Historical Society in 1978. Today, the store museum is a re-creation of the old general store with original containers, shelving, and goods on display. It is listed on the State and National Registers of Historical Places.
Woodson, S. Howard, Jr. (b. May 8, 1916; d. July 28, 1999). Clergyman, civil rights leader, and politician. Born in Philadelphia, S. Howard Woodson earned a divinity degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1944 and became pastor of one of Trenton’s largest black churches, Shiloh Baptist, in i946. Woodson used his pulpit to advocate civil rights, pushing for the first statewide conference on fair housing and for more governmental hiring of minorities. He was chosen president of the State Conference of the NAACP in i960.
Woodson’s election to the Trenton City Council in i962 made him the first black elected official in city history; two years later, he was elected as a Democrat to the first of six terms in the state assembly. In i974 and i975, he served as assembly Speaker, the first African American to lead the lower house of a state legislature. In 1976 he was appointed president of the state Civil Service Commission (now Personnel Department). He ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Trenton in i982.
Woodson’s church promoted interfaith events for racial harmony in the turbulent i960s, and Woodson personally walked the streets trying to restore calm during a devastating Trenton race riot in i968. He retired as pastor in i999, months before his death.
Woodstown. 1.56-square-mile borough in Salem County. Originally, there were two settlements—Pilesgrove, home of Jachinias Wood, after whom Woodstown was named, and Mill Brook, home of Jeremiah Wood, father of Jachinias. Jeremiah Wood had a tannery at Mill Brook. This pond area attracted a miller and other tradesmen to serve the local farmers who came to the mill to have their wheat and corn ground. This millpond is now known as Memorial Lake. Later Woodstown was home to a cabinetmaker and a locally famous clockmaker, George Hollinshead. The two settlements combined to become Woods-town borough in i882. The borough continues to be a business center, meeting the needs of the surrounding agricultural areas. Many large Victorian and Federal-style homes line Main Street. Woodstown has the tradition of having candles in the windows of many of its homes at Christmas time, when it has a Candlelight Walking Tour.
In 2000 the population of 3,i36 was 85 percent white and i3 percent black. The median household income was $44,533.
Woolman, John (b. Oct. 19, 1720; d. Oct. 7,1772). Religious leader and abolitionist. John Woolman was a descendant of one of the earliest families to settle the colony of West Jersey. He was born in Northampton, Burlington County, the child of Samuel and Elizabeth Woolman, Quaker farmers. He was educated in Quaker schools and supported himself as a shopkeeper, tailor, schoolteacher, surveyor, and executor of wills. His most important vocation, however, was that of a Quaker minister. Woolman began speaking on behalf of the Society of Friends as early as 1746 and two years later was recorded as an official minister of the society.
Woolman’s Journal, which he began writing in i756, reveals the intensity with which he lived his Quaker faith. His pursuit of an inner spiritual life translated into a concern for social justice and a fierce opposition to the French and Indian War. Woolman traveled thousands of miles, many of them on foot, throughout the British Empire on behalf of the Friends. He spoke with slaveholders about the evils of slavery, encouraged Quakers not to pay war taxes, and visited Delaware Indians to promote peace. Woolman embodied the Quaker experience in colonial America. He wrote dozens of books and pamphlets on Quaker-related themes and was one of America’s earliest and most prolific crusaders against the institution of African slavery.
Title page of Considerations on Keeping Negroes by John Woolman, 1762.
Woolwich. 20.9-square-mile township in Gloucester County. Swedes settled the area during the seventeenth century, followed by other Europeans, all attracted by the farmland near the Delaware River. In 1767 the area was removed from Greenwich Township and, with a royal charter, named Woolwich, after a town on the Thames made famous by a naval academy. Woolwich incorporated as a township in 1798. Its location on the Delaware River was advantageous to farmers and sawmill owners, who used the waterway for delivery of goods before railroads were built. From 1820 to 1902, Logan Township, Harrison Township, and Swedesboro split off from Woolwich and became independent.
Today, Woolwich remains rural, with some farms. A majority of the dwellings are single-family homes. In 2000, the population of 3,032 was 91 percent white. The median household income was $83,790.
