The village of Whitesville is in the southeastern part of Jackson Township. Originally it was named White’s Bridge for the property owner of that name.

By 1839 the small bridge over the main branch of the Toms River had probably given it’s name White’s Bride to the Hamlet nearby. But it was not until the 1860’s, after the advent of the Raritan and Delaware Bay railroad that a sizeable village developed there.
    Whitesville was named after Judge J. D. White, who served as Lay Judge for the county of Ocean during three terms. Many of his descendants lived in the vicinity around 1940 which had a population of about three hundred. There was at least ten families of that name living there at that time

Jackson History

    Jackson, as a corporate entity, was created in March, 1844, by an Act of the State legislature. While its new territory was created mostly from the lower portions of Freehold and Upper Freehold, a portion of the northern end of Dover Township was also taken to form Jackson Township.
    While the Township has existed as a corporate entity only 150 years, events within its boundaries have been recorded since the first English settlement. In the spring of 1665, the Monmouth Patent was granted by New York's Governor, John Nicoli. This Patent included most of the Township within its boundaries, and was granted shortly after Governor Nicoli, acting on behalf of James, Duke of York ( and brother of King of England ) ousted Peter Stuyvesant and ended Dutch sovereignty over the New Amsterdam colony of New Jersey-New York in 1665. Monmouth and Ocean Counties first appeared with the purchase by a dozen Long Island and Rhode Island residents of English and Huguenot descent from the native Indians, the Lenni Lenapes.
    The name of the earliest twenty-five pioneer families who settled in the first 10 years of Jackson's existence (the 1665 - 1675 era) are familiar to us because their descendants still reside with us today. They are Allen, Applegate, Benit (Bennett), Bills, Burdon (Borden) - a 1665 patentee, Buckelew, Cheeseman - a 1665 patentee, Henderson, Holman - a 1665 patentee, Hulse, Hyerse (Heyers), Johnstone, and Johnson, Perrino, Reynolds, Van Hise, and White.
    During the revolution, Jackson heard the marching of General Clinton's army in it's retreat from Philadelphia to New York. In June, 1778, the mighty British Army used the Monmouth Road ( Route 537 ) on its way to the Battle of Monmouth, harassed as it passed through Jackson, by contingents of the American Army on both flanks.

    In 1844, with the creation of Jackson and Millstone Townships, four freeholders were added to the Monmouth County Board. Plumsted's creation in 1845 added two more. Atlantic Township in 1847, and Marlboro and Ocean in 1849, added six more. The number of seats on the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders rapidly rose from fifteen in 1843, to thirty-two members by 1849. In 1849, it was by far the largest Freeholder Board in all the eighteen counties of the state, and hastened the creation of the following year of a new Ocean County from the lower townships of old Monmouth in March, 1850. 
    How did Jackson get its name? The version which is confirmed by 1865 recollections of the retired Governor, Geroge Fort, is that Jackson Township was named in honor of the then ex-president, Andrew Jackson. This version is further buttressed by the fact that at the same time the Township was created, the name of its largest village Goshen, was renamed Cassville. Cassville was renamed in honor of General Lewis Cass, President Jackson's Secretary of War. The conservative citizenry of the area still held both men in high esteem, even though they had both left their respective offices some six years proir to the creation of Jackson Township. Legislative approval was sought for the creation of the new township from a State Legislature whose majority were members of the surving Jacksonian Democratic Party.

    At least six veterans of the American Revolution rest in the cemeteries of the Methodist Churches. The Cook House on Cooks Bridge Road has withstood the elements since its erection in 1750 by the Reynolds family. Jamison's general Store, with its added historic value as a Post Office until 1960, stands in operation for more than 100 years, when Van Hiseville was know as Irish Mills.
    Churches, initially Protestant denomination and mostly Methodist-Episcopal, were established during the revival of the mid-1800's. Methodist churches survive throughout the Township. The Cassville Methodist church was organized in the early 1840's and erected its first log church in 1844. Holmansville Presbyterian was organized in 1847 as the first of that sect in the county. And a Holmansville Methodist sect reorganized in 1869, utilizing the Presbyterian facility. Pleasant Grove Methodist church organized prior to 1850, while Whitesville Methodist church was organized in 1860. Other Methodist churches organized in the 1860-1870 era but died before the turn of the century, at Colliers Mills, Leesville, Jackson Mills and Webbville.
    The remains of speculative attempts in 1905 and again in the 1920's to "bring in" commercial oil well production, may yet be found near the Jackson Mills Lake, where an eight inch casing pokes its head above the earth's surface. Another well was initiated during the same era on the Van Hiseville-Cassville Road (Route 528), but this too died without producing a drop of commercial oil. In all, five speculative wells were sunk in Jackson.

[ Directory ]