Eight NJ towns are actually older than the country

We are fortunate in New Jersey to be surrounded by historic battlefields and historic towns. New Jersey played a key role in the fight for independence from Great Britain. Because of that and the many natural resources here, there are at least eight towns older than the mainland United States.

We are still very young compared to the rest of the world. But some of the country’s oldest towns are here in our state. The state has so much rich and colorful history that you could spend a lifetime learning it all. Here are his eight towns, settled before we became a nation.

Hillsborough Township quickly went down in history as the route that General George Washington and his army traveled from the Battle of Princeton to the winter quarters of Morristown.

The name Alloway is derived from the local Native American chief, Allowas.

It was originally incorporated as Upper Alloways Creek Township.

This is the first European settlement in northwestern New Jersey. The name “Hannover” comes from the Hanover family in Germany. The name was given to Hanover Township on December 7, 1720 as a sign of respect for King George I of England, a Hanoverian who ruled the American colony in the 18th century.

When settled in 1683, the new city was called “New Perth” after James Drummond, Earl of Perth, one of twelve colleagues in the Scottish management’s firm. Drummond has a statue outside City Hall. Amboi is a corruption of the Algonquin word for plain, ‘omposi’, pronounced ambo and later amboi.

The original name was New Barbados Township, after the British colony of Barbados. The present town’s name was derived from the River Saddle, a tributary of the Passaic River, and named after the creek and gorge at Saddle, in Argyll, Scotland.

The original name was also part of New Barbados Township. The current name comes from the Algonquin word for “Hook’s Mouth”, a river bend, or possibly from an old inn there named “Hock and Sack”.

The area was settled in 1666 by Connecticut Puritans led by Robert Treat of the Colony of New Haven. It began as a theocratic gathering of believers, but this did not last long as new settlers came with different ideas. On October 31, 1693, Newark, originally purchased on July 11, 1667, was organized as his township in New Jersey on the basis of the tract.

The opinions expressed in the above post are solely those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy.

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