Contact Info
|
Township of Pennsville
90 N. Broadway
Pennsville NJ 08070
(856) 678-3089
Official
Site |
|
|
| Facts |
Founded: 1798
Settled: 1638/1640
Population: 13,194
Size: 24.4 Sq miles |
Over 325 years have passed since the early colonists arrived in the Penn's Neck area. Pennsville has changed its name several times. Quihawkin, Kinseyville, Biddle's, and Cravens Ferry are names unfamiliar to the residents of Pennsville today.
Shortly after the Swedes and Finns settled in Wilmington, Delaware in 1638, they migrated across the Delaware River into New Jersey where they found the area more suited to farming for those who were not interested in the trade business. The majority of the Finns settled near the Finn's Point Lighthouse, and the Swedes near the area that had at one time been called Churchtown.
Settled c.1683 by the Swedes and Finns, known after 1675 as West Fenwick, called Penn's Neck in 1701, becoming known as Lower Penn's Neck when it was subdivided from Upper Penn's Neck and Oldman's Townships in 1721, according to W. W. Summerill, but incorporated in 1798, and finally becoming the Township of Pennsville by a vote of its residents in 1965, the population is now 13,800.
When the early colonists arrived, there were three clans of the Lenni-Lenape tribe living in the area along the Delaware River which they called Shanaigah. Obisquahassit was the name of the old Indian Chief who sold land to the settlers. Records of land purchases date back to 1665.
Several early homes within Pennsville have been preserved as private residences, six of which are pre-revolutionary, built between 1726 and 1775.
Shad fishing, in addition to farming, was one of the chief occupations for the residents of Pennsville. In later years industrial development in the area offered employment, the largest being the DuPont Company. Today Pennsville is e a riverfront community which encompasses approximately 24.2 square miles with a population of approximately 14,000.
| Things to See |
- Riverview
Beach Park
- Pennsville Historical Society
|
- Fort
Mott State Park
- Supawana Meadows National Wildlife Refuge |
- Finns Point Lighthouse |
- Finns Point National
Cemetary |
|
