Tuckerton is the largest and most flourishing village in the township of Little Egg Harbor. It is situated on a stream of excellent water, by the Indians called Pohatcong creek, more recently known as the Mill stream and Tuckerton creek. In old times the creek was called after the owners of the grist-mill, which is situated at its head, and was built in the year 1704. In old deeds and such like documents, Tuckerton creek is called Pohatcong, Andrews' Mill creek (after Edward Andrews, the founder of the grist-mill), Jacob Andrews' Mill creek, Shourds' Mill creek, and at this date it is called Tuckerton creek.

When the first whites came to Little Egg Harbor, they found the Tuckerton mill-pond dammed off by the beavers, and these industrious animals saved Edward Andrews an immense amount of work when about to construct the grist-mill. The population of Tuckerton is 1300. It has a Quaker, Methodist and Presbyterian church. The Quaker meeting is the oldest on the coast of New Jersey, from Cape May to Shrewsbury, Monmouth county. Tuckerton received its first white inhabitants about the year 1698 or 1699, for at that time Edward Andrews settled on the easterly side of Pohatcong creek, he having purchased of Samuel Jennings five hundred acres of land on the easterly side of Tuckerton (then Pohatcong creek.) This young but bold and energetic pioneer found what is now called Tuckerton, and all the surrounding country, an unbroken forest, inhabited by a few Indians, who had erected their wigwams along the margin of the stream and the borders of the salt marsh.

There were no facilities for building habitations, except in the rudest style of architecture, but the emigrant must have a habitation to shelter himself and family from the inclemencies of the weather, and the unwelcome visit of the beasts of the forest. He availed himself of such materials as were at hand; he dug a spacious cave and walled it up with cedar logs, and covered it with hewn timber of the same plentiful material. The well stocked waters and woods supplied him with an abundance of the good things on which men like to banquet, but he desired to have a farm, and be blessed with the pleasant and profitable things, which cultivating the soil brings to those who are doomed to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow; and he soon set about clearing land for a farm, and then built a grist mill.

In the year 1712 Edward Andrews made his will and bequeathed the grist mill to his wife during her life, and after her decease his son Samuel was to have the mill. Samuel Andrews must have sold the mill to his brother Jacob Andrews, and Jacob must have sold it to Samuel Shourds, Sr.

After Shourds' death the mill was owned among his children, and finally Daniel Shourds became sole proprietor, and after his decease his son Samuel owned the mill, and he sold it to Shinn Oliphant, Sr., and he sold it to his son Eayre Oliphant, Sr., and Simeon Haines. Haines died soon after his purchase of the mills, (at this time and probably long before there was a saw mill, which was owned by whoever was the owners of the grist mill,) and Timothy Pharo bought Haines's share of the mills, and for some years they were known as Oliphant and Pharo's mills. Oliphant finally sold his part to Timothy Pharo, thus constituting him the sole proprietor of the mills. After Timothy Pharo's death his sons became the owners, and at this date A.R. Pharo is sole owner. A few years ago the Pharo's had the old grist mill taken down and a large mill built on its site; they also built and rebuilt the two saw mills. It is uncertain who built the first saw mill - it is supposed that it was Samuel Shourds, Sr.

It was a long time before Edward Andrews' farm assumed the form or name of a village. In the year 1715 there was on the easterly side of the creek the Friends' Meeting House, the grist mill and Edward Andrews' farm house, and on the westerly side of the stream, Mordecai Andrews, Sr.'s,farm house, and there might have been a few more settlers.

The ancient inhabitants of the surrounding country went to meeting and to mill at the place called Quakertown, and people wrote about the little Egg Harbor meeting-house as though it was the name of the hamlet; and surveyors and land owners bounded their land on the road that "leads to the Egg Harbor meeting-house," and it does not appear to have had any other name. Tradition says it was once known as Fishtown, and then some splenetic individual nicknamed it Clamtown, and thus it is called in Scott's Gazetteer, published in 1799, and thus it seems it existed a long time without a stationary name; finally the Hon. Ebenezer Tucker resolved on giving the village a permanent name. In order to accomplish his laudable determination, he made a feast to which he invited all the inhabitants of the township, on the condition that the village should be styled Tuckerton, in honor of the giver of the banquet, and it was then and there so named by acclamation.

There has been considerable dispute about the date of the year when Tuckerton was named. Years ago I asked a very intelligent old lady (who was at the meeting that was convened for the purpose of naming Tuckerton) in what year Tuckerton was named. She answered that she did not remember the date of the year, but that at the time of the meeting her eldest son was four years old. I procured the date of his birth, and ascertained that he was born in the year 1794, therefore Tuckerton must have been named in the year 1798, and another old lady who remember the naming of the town gave about the same account of the date as did the first named person, and according to these statements it is eighty-one years since the village received the name of Tuckerton.

When interviewing the first-named old lady about the naming of Tuckerton, I asked her what they had to eat at the banquet that was given for the name of Tuckerton, and she answered "boiled beef and pork, and turnips, and potatoes and rye bread." This was good substantial food, and no doubt helped to make their voices strong for saying: hurrah! for Tuckerton.

Edward Andrews died in the year 1716, bequeathing his farm to his wife during her life, and after her decease, to his sons Jacob and Peter. Peter Andrews must have sold his part of the farm to his brother Jacob, and Jacob must have sold the farm to Hananiah Gauntt, who resided on his farm for a long term of years, and after his decease, the farm was divided between his two sons, Joseph and John. Joseph Gauntt had that part of his father's farm which lies above Main street. Joseph Gauntt built and resided in the house where the late Ebenezer Tucker lived and died. Joseph Gauntt sold his property to Ebenezer Tucker.

John Gauntt had all of his father's lands below Main street, lying between the mill tract, Tuckerton creek on the one side, and the Joseph B. Sapp farm on the other side. (John Gauntt had that portion of his father's farm on which were situated the homestead buildings, which were said to have been commodious.) They were situated on the lot where Mr. George Auner's cottage is now standing, and this is doubtless the site of Edward Andrews' homestead. John Gauntt sold his possessions to Ebenezer Tucker, and removed to Haddonfield, N.J.

That part of Tuckerton formerly known as the Mill Property, lies between the mill-pond and Tuckerton creek on the one side, and Green street on the other. It is probable that when Edward Andrews gave his son Samuel the mill, he also gave him the above described tract. After the mill property came into the hands of the Shourds' family, it was divided into building lots, and now is the most compact part of the town. The house on the corner of Main and Water streets, opposite the grist-mill, is the house of the old Shourds' families. It was formerly a hipped-roof, clap-boarded concern, but has been modernized in its architecture by various repairs. It is the oldest building in the village.

That portion of Tuckerton which lies on the westerly side of the creek, is a part of what was once the farm of Mordecai Andrews, Sr., where he settled when he came with his brother Edward to Egg Harbor, and he, like Edward, at first lived in a cave, and in the cave his son Mordecai, Jr., was born, probably the first white child born in what is now Tuckerton. Here Mordecai lived and died, and on this farm he and his wife and one child were buried; in the stone hill adjacent to the bay, and on this hill Mordecai, Sr.'s, wife buried her money, in order to disinherit her son Mordecai, who had married against her will. She is said to have hidden the money with this injunction: "It was to lie concealed until the time of the fourth generation of her son Mordecai, when the spell was to be removed and the money divided among his posterity." There Mordecai, Jr., lived and died in the year 1763, his disease being cancer in the face.

As an evidence of the temperate habits of the residents of Egg Harbor, they lived for the space of nearly three quarters of a century without a tavern within their borders. The first tavern established in Tuckerton, was erected by David Falkinburg, about the time of the Revolutionary War. When about to build this tavern Falkinburg hired one hundred and fifty pounds of money of great John Mathis, and I have Falkinburg's bond, which he gave Mathis for the security of the money, which was not paid, for when Continental scrip became the currency of the country - it like a moth eat up the funds of a great many people. The above said tavern was situated on the eminence where Doctor Page's cottage is now situated. Before the close of the Revolutionary War, Falkinburg sold his tavern to Solomon Rockhill, of Chesterfield, after some years Rockhill went back to his native place, and his son-in-law, Zebadiah Line kept the tavern, and after him Noah Sooy, Caleb Lane and Jacob Lippincott succeeded each other in the capacity of landlords of the Old Tavern. The last named innkeeper resided there for a long term of years, and until it ceased to be a licensed tavern. For many years the "Old Tavern" was the property of Eben Tucker. The present hotel of Tuckerton was formerly known as the Union Inn, and was erected about seventy-five years ago by Ebenezer Tucker. Some years ago it was enlarged upon by William Page, and within a few years it has been enlarged and repaired by its present owner, and is now called the Carleton House; and is the only licensed Hotel in Tuckerton. The next house but one above the hotel, owned by Captain Hezekiah Brown, used to be called the Forman House and the White House - white then being the color of the house. It was built by John Forman, Esq., (but not for a hotel.) After it passed out of Forman's hands it was kept as a hotel by various landlords, the place being owned by Ebenezer Tucker. For a few years the "Deacon House" was kept as a hotel by Lloyd Jones; it is now called the "big boarding-house," and is on the corner of Main and Green streets, opposite the Carleton House. The John D. Thompson House was formerly a hotel, built by Bennet Rose, who was the principal landlord. Tuckerton is noted for the temperance and good morals of its inhabitants, and ministers of the gospel say that in consequence of this, there is nothing in Tuckerton to preach about. The principal merchants of Tuckerton in former times were Ebenezer Tucker, Samuel Cawley, Caleb Evans, Jacob Hubbs, Thomas Relley, James Willits, Samuel Deacon, Eayre Oliphant, Sr., George W. Tucker, Nathaniel Cowperthwaite, Jeremiah Ridgway, 3d, James Ridgway, Thomas Horner and William Parker, James D. Kelley, Thomas Page, Bront Slaight, William D. Lippincott, Noah Edwards and Samuel S. Downs, Stephen Willits, Thompson and Bartlett, Timothy Pharo and the various firms of the Pharo family, Allen P. Tilton, Albert Pharo, Francis French, James N. Bartlett, John D. Thompson and Lane & Brothers and Samuel B. Headley & Son.

At this date, (1879,) the merchants are Samuel P. Bartlett, James Andrews, Bildeck & Co., William Sawyer, flour and feed store; Gustavus Hienuck, Jesse C. Ridgway, Francis French, George W. Mathis, two stores; Frederic Lepschute, Timothy W. Brown & Co., Mrs. Melinda Hanson and Mrs. Sue Brown, millinery store and dressmaking establishment combined; Mrs. Joslin, millinery store; Jacob Hopper, jewelry store; C.Q. Kelley, restaurant and country produce merchant; Mr. H. Gilson, ice cream saloon and also a tobacco and segar store; George Austin & Palmer, butchers.

Mechanics, &c.: - J. Ireland & Son, blacksmiths; Jacob L. Cowperthwaite, wheelwright; George Dayton, George Walker and James Horner, painters; Joseph I. Smith, undertaker and cabinet maker; Elijah Palmer, William H. Shourds and Mr. Roth, shoemakers; Daniel Cotton, miller; Samuel Lippincott, Wilkinson Lippincott, G. Shreve Butler and Norman White, house carpenters; N.V. Lane, Thomas Blackman, Gardiner Hayward and John Rockhill, ship carpenters; Mr. Roberts, tinman; George Sawyer and Joseph Sawyer, masons; John Warren and I.J. Downs, plasterers.

Officers: - George Cranmer, collector of customs; William Steelman, justice of the peace and barber; J.L. Cowperthwaite, constable; William Page, mail agent; John D. Thompson, postmaster, commissioner of deeds and local attorney; Mr. Whitney, principal of East Tuckerton district school; Mark Adams and Ebenezer Mathis, teachers of West Tuckerton school.

Rev. Mr. Weatherby, Methodist minister; Rev. J.H. Bradley, Presbyterian minister; Dr. G.G. Price, marine physician.

Among the head men of the place in former days were Edward Andrews, Jacob Andrews, Hananiah Gauntt, Samuel Shourds, Sr., Daniel Shourds, Sr., Joseph and John Gauntt, Ebenezer Tucker, Samuel Deacon, and Eayre Oliphant, Timothy Pharo, Joseph W. Pharo, and Joseph Ridgway, Esq.

Next to the Pharo's as merchant, ship-owner, and other business affairs, was Jarvis H. Bartlett.

The first account of a male physician in Little Egg Harbor was James Belangee, Sr., who it is said was a skillful doctor. For the most part the healing art was in the hands of certain skillful females, who prescribed according to the root and herb system, many of their most valuable prescriptions having been obtained of the Indians. Among the most noted of the old-timed female physicians were Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Andrews, Sr., Ann Gauntt, the minister; and at Bass river were Mary, wife of Semor Cranmer, Sr., and Catharine, wife of Capt. William Leake. Hannah, wife of Isaac Andrews, took up the profession of medicine, and had the reputation of a skillful practitioner. She was frequently called on to prescribe for the sick many miles away from her residence, and many a sick person placed their hopes of life in the skill of Hannah Andrews. The principal male physicians who have lived and practiced in Tuckerton and vicinity were Dr. Fort, of Mount Holly, Dr. Sawyer, of Massachusetts, Dr. Mason, of Pemberton, Dr. Page, of Evesham, Dr. Lane, of Atlantic county, Dr. Price, of Cape May, Dr. Clark, of Canada, and Dr. Harvey.

Tuckerton was a few years ago a great ship building place, and a large number of vessels were owned in the town. It used to export large quantities of lumber. Formerly, the merchants of Tuckerton received most of their goods from New York, as there were vessels which made regular trips between that city and Tuckerton; but since the construction of the Tuckerton railroad, most of the merchandize is transported by rail.

A large number of the inhabitants followed the oyster business, and others fishing, gunning, and other bay business. There are two fish factories in Egg Harbor.

In the year 1815, some enterprising men from New England came to Tuckerton, and formed a company, and built a salt works on the confines of Tuckerton, for the manufacture of salt. Many of the residents of the place, and also people from other sections, took shares in the concern, which prospered for a considerable time, but finally went down. One of the principal men of the New England company, was William Thatcher. The Free Masons, Odd Fellows, Sons of Temperance, Temperance Beneficial and Good Templars, have all flourished in Tuckerton. There is a circulating library in the village which was gotten up, and is controlled by a company of ladies.

A certain writer says, it is now more than ninety years since the first State appointment of an official capacity took place, that your correspondent is aware of. The commission is to Ebenezer Tucker, bearing date October 14th, 1784, and signed William Livingston, Governor of New Jersey.

After the adoption of the United States Constitution, September 17th, 1787, Tuckerton became a port of entry, and Ebenezer Tucker was appointed Collector, his commission bearing date March 21st, 1791, signed George Washington, President, Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State. This was followed by another, George Washington, President, Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State. Bears date May 30,1796.

There is a letter from Washington to Ebenezer Tucker, relating to the sale of lands, bearing date January 24th, 1791; also from John Adams and others, to the same. About this time Tuckerton became a post town, Ebenezer Tucker, postmaster.

Ebenezer Tucker held the ofiice of postmaster from its establishment, to the hour of his death, the fifth of September, 1845, a period of fifty-four years. In the latter part of his life, William S. Lippincott was deputy postmaster under Ebenezer Tucker.

I cannot say how the mail was carried from and to Tuckerton, for some authors persist in saying that Isaac Jenkins was the first stageman between Tuckerton and Philadelphia, and that he commenced the stage business about the year 1816. But certain statements warrant me in believing, that it was before the year 1816 that Jenkins set up staging. James Hughes, of Cape May, was one of the early stage drivers of the Tuckerton stage, and many are inclined to the belief that he was the first who acted in that capacity. Isaac Jenkins made one trip a week, leaving Tuckerton on Monday, and returning on Saturday. It took two days' travel each way.

In 1828, John D. Thompson, Esq., bought the line, and ran the stages through each way in a day, and carried the mails. The only public conveyances to the cities were stages or vessels, until 1871, when the Tuckerton railroad was built.

In the early days of the summer boarding houses on Long and Tucker's Beaches, city boarders to these houses by the sea, reached Tuckerton by the stages, and then embarked in sail boats for the beaches. During the boarding season many private citizens who had good teams, embarked in the business of conveying city passengers from Philadelphia to Tuckerton and then back to the city. Among these volunteer stagemen was Cornelius Kelley, of West Creek, who would not own a second-class horse or carriage, and who was well-calculated to keep his passengers supplied with anecdotes and extemporaneous speeches over which to make merry during the tedious drive through the wilderness which they had to pass. Among other summer stagemen were Stephen Willits, Sr., Benjamin Parker, Sr., Jacob Willits, Joseph Parker and some others. Joseph Parker's stage carried the mail for a long term of years.

The schools of Tuckerton are two first-class district schools, and the school houses are commodious edifices.