Talk:Harrington Township, New Jersey

Eastwood?

I've read that the southern portion of modern River Vale was called Eastwood, which is east of Westwood. Is it correct that part of modern Old Tappan was called Eastwood? --ChrisRuvolo (t) 14:18, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I had left a link for Eastwood, New Jersey, because it is such a metaphor for the whole case of "Boroughitis" in 1894. A change in the Borough Law allowed areas to form a municipality by a vote of those in the new borough, without requiring any further legislative approval. As of 1885, Bergen County only had 14 townships covering the whole county. In 1894 alone, 26 new boroughs were formed, one of them being Eastwood. There have been many changes since 1894, new boroughs (and other municipalities), some name and border changes, but by 1924 the process was complete with the formation of Bergen's 70th municipality (which, if I recall was Fair Lawn, New Jersey). The one borough that didn't make it was Eastwood, which was formed in 1894 from part of the old Washington Township, and gave up in 1896. See this item from the Bergen County Historical Scoiety for some of the details about Eastwood. I'd also recommend the three-volume "History of Bergen County" dated 1923, which should be in every Bergen County public library's reference section, and has great contemporaneous details of the boroughs and other municipalities and their formation.

Now you know why, as I had always wondered, there are so many Boroughs in Bergen; 56 out of the 70 municipalities. The Borough is the most common form of government in New Jersey, with just over 200 statewide, and Bergen accounts for over a quarter of the total.

There's been so much to do as part of WP:NJ, between school districts (my top current subject) and changes in the Assembly (which all took effect yesterday). But one of the things that I want to do for Bergen only is to create pages for all of the historical townships (you see what I've started), and to includedetails in each Bergen municipality regarding its formation (e.g., the Borough of Foo was formed on January 29, 1894, from portions of the historical Foo Township...). I also want to create the Eastwood page, as it is a perfect little story of New Jersey municipal government. And not just because Clint Eastwood took his name from the Borough (ha ha).

Let me know if this helps, or if you'd want to cooperate on this effort. Alansohn 14:49, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Well that certainly explains the map at Image:BergenCounty_1918.jpg, which shows the Eastwood area as having reverted to Washington Township. But notice that the area's borders don't differ from modern River Vale's borders, so I'm still confused about where the Old Tappan info comes from. Also note the isolated sections of Orville Township that were not yet absorbed into other municipalities, a very interesting map.

This information should certainly be incorporated into the municipality articles. I'll work with you on it, but I'm not aware of any sources that I can get the information from. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 15:13, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

A great start source and starting point would be a fascinating article about Bergen's municipal history. Follow all 4 pages for a full history. The maps can be tough to read for more recent divisions. The other aspect is that townships weren't just subdivided; the new municipalities (mostly boroughs) were created from bits and pieces of the older townships and even took chunks of other new municipalities. It really is fascinating. One of the volumes of the three-volume "History of Bergen County" dated 1923 has details on each municipality and covers the boroughitis phenomenon in great detail. You'll find it at any bergen County library. Alansohn

Thanks for that link. Some good info there. I would check out that 3-volume history, but I am not in New Jersey anymore. It sounds like a good reference though, I will look into it . I wonder if it is out of copyright. Looking on the bccls.org site, I believe the book you are referring to is "History of Bergen county, New Jersey, 1630-1923;" by "Westervelt, Frances A. (Frances Augusta), 1858-1942." However, there is another book that may be useful, "History of Bergen County, New Jersey" by "Van Valen, James M." copyright 1900, possibly republished 1995. I would provide a link to the record, but it seems that the bccls catalog URLs are session-based. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 19:15, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm sure libraries nationwide carry "History of Bergen county, New Jersey, 1630-1923;" by "Westervelt, Frances A. (Frances Augusta), 1858-1942." Yup, that's the book. The disadvantage of the 1900 version (which I have read) is that it's not as through and it misses a lot of what happened late in the 19th centtury and everything that happened in the early 20th, when much of the municipal formation took place. Again, I will revisit this subject and create the Eastwood, New Jersey article. Alansohn 19:41, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I found it at the Library of Congress, but not at the NYC public library. It might not be too common outside of NJ. :( --ChrisRuvolo (t) 20:09, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

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