Barrington

HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH Source Book: History of Barrington, New Jersey . Published 1992 by the Barrington Historical Society. Introduction Barrington, as with all of New Jersey, can trace its history back more than 300 years. One of its first settlers, William Clark, acquired 250 acres of land in 1703, and part of it remained in the Clark name for about 2 1/2 centuries. The earliest use of the land was for farming, and after World War II there were several operating farms in out town. Early in New Jersey’s history, counties were created which were comprised of townships and a few cities. Some counties were split up; for example, Gloucester County, in the middle of the 19th century, became Atlantic, Camden and Gloucester Counties. Until 1844, “Barrington” was in Gloucester County, and most business at the county level required a trip to Woodbury. Since Clements Bridge Road was not laid out until the beginning of the 19th century, the journey to the county offices involved crossing Timber Creek, which was somewhat formidable. During the first two centuries the area remained agricultural, but outside factors modified farming operations in the 1800s and brought about changes in landholding period. The railroad, in the 1890s, together with real estate development, gave rise to the Village of Barrington. This changed the face of the area, and resulted, in the emergence of the borough (1917). Displacement of the railroad and the trolley car by the automobile and the bus in the 1920s, and the impact of science and technology in road building, home construction and manufacturing (1950s), transformed the area from the residential-rural community to a modern suburb. The Early Years 1776-1850 Due to natural increases and immigration, the population of Philadelphia, the chief market for South Jersey farmers, and always a substantial influence on the southern part of our state, quadrupled from 1800 to 1850 to 121,000. The increase in population represented a demand for a long list of products, including agricultural products. However, the population in the Barrington area remained at about twenty to thirty, the same as it was at the time of the Revolutionary War. Farmers needed better roads to transport their products to markets in Philadelphia and elsewhere. Roads and bridges were neglected during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, as money was diverted to the war effort. Barrington farmers undoubtedly utilized Clements Bridge Road, Gloucester Pike, White Horse Pike, Haddon Avenue (via Haddonfield) and Warwick Road. The State Legislature in the early days of the nineteenth century set about improving some of those roads by incorporating private enterprises that would undertake the job of road building and maintenance. Those private businesses were given important privileges including permission to charge travelers “toll” for using the “turnpikes”. Haddon Avenue (laid out in 1792) and the White Horse Pike (laid out in 1807) became such turnpikes. The Kings Highway (1796), Clements Bridge Road (1807) and Warwick Road remained toll free or public roads. The turnpike companies were responsible for rebuilding solid roads with crushed-stone surfaces, making them better highways than the public roads that, for the most part, remained dirt or gravel roads and were kept free of weeds. Still, during the first half of the nineteenth century Barrington farmers must have felt that they had reasonably good means for horse-and-wagon transport of their products to markets and for the purchase of farm and household necessities. The principal point of reference for anyone coming to the Barrington vicinity was the intersection of White Horse Pike and Clements Bridge Road, which, according to the 1847 Sidney Map of Ten Miles Round Philadelphia, was known as Union Grove. At that time most of Barrington was owned by the Willits family. Camden Road Return A-83 (1855) refers to the intersection as Cooper’s Corner, and as recently as 1877 Benjamin D. C