Parkertown is a rural village about two miles from Tuckerton; it contains about thirty houses and a district school. It was settled by Joseph Parker, Sr., who came from Shrewsbury in the year 1721. He purchased the land and cleared a farm on which Parkertown is situated, I suppose nearly, if not every person living there is of his posterity.

At an early date the first settlers appear to have built school houses. In olden times there was a school house on the land which is now the Methodist graveyard in Tuckerton. The Down Shore school house was situated a short distance below the Throckmorton place, on land belonging to the Oliver Parker farm, and it is probable that this was the first institution of learning built in the township; it certainly was a very ancient affair and was taken down about the year 1872 - being completely worn out. In that rude structure several generations of the first settlers received their education, and it has the honor of producing among its pupils several men of marked abilities, and who were very useful public characters, such as Eli Mathis, Elihu Mathis, Rev. Anthony Atwood, Rev. Joseph Atwood, Rev. Samuel Atwood; and Aaron Belangee, a noted old-times school teacher, got his education in that venerable and uncouth styled school house, which was built on a little lot of cleared ground, surrounded with large forest trees. Some of the above-named men, when they were acquiring their education in this school house, had to walk over four miles, night and morning, and that in the winter season; but such boys of that period had energy and ambition, and accomplished more than boys of modern times who have schools so handy and so much better facilities for acquiring knowledge.

For many years the Quaker Society owned the school houses and the land they were built upon, and they had full control of the schools. When the above described school house was taken down, the Friends' Society bought a lot of land of Capt. Anthony Atwood, and there was a school house erected on it, but after a few years the house was burnt, and then John F. Jones sold a lot to the trustees of the district and the present school house in the neighborhood of Down Shore was built by the contributions of the inhabitants of the place, and the Friends had no control or right in this house.

At an early date the Friends bought what was called the Grove School lot in West Tuckerton, and a school house was erected on it, and served for the use of several generations, but was finally worn out and then another was built on its site, and remained thus until recently when commodious district school houses became the fashion and the old house was abandoned.

In very early times there was a school house at Bass River and another at Mathistown; it was a log house and stood on the high point of land west of the Mathistown brook. This comprises a brief history of the old-time schools, &c.

In the year 1874 there was a commodious district school house built in East Tuckerton, and soon after another in West Tuckerton.

Great John Mathis appears to have been the first white man who settled at Bass River. In the year 1713 he purchased Daniel Mathis' island, and soon after settled on it. John Mathis was the wealthiest man and greatest landholder that Little Egg Harbor produced for three or four generations after its settlement. He became possessed of thousands of acres of the best lands in or about Bass River and several of the most valuable farms in that section were formed into farms under his superintendence. and he presented his six sons with more than six thousand acres of land, beside what he sold to strangers and devised when he made his will. The stage road from Tuckerton to Bass River and on to Bridgeport for a space of five or more miles runs through lands that once belonged to John Mathis, and he owned large surveys in other sections.

In the fore part of this work I have not recognized Bass River as a township, for most of this history belongs to a period when Bass River was a part of Little Egg Harbor township. Bass River township was set off from Little Egg Harbor in the year 1864.

I think the first white neighbor John Mathis had after he settled at Bass river, was Robert Allen, who came from Shrewsbury, and in the year 1721 married Edith Andrews, sister to John Mathis' wife, and about the same date John Cranmer married Mary Andrews, and settled at Bass river. Robert Allen at what is now called Allentown, and I think John Cranmer settled somewhere between Bass river and Bridgeport.

In the year 1729 Stephen Cranmer settled at Bass river on the farm formerly known as the Caleb Cranmer, Esq., farm, which lies contiguous to the river. Stephen Cranmer was considered one of the wealthy men of Bass River, and a man of considerable influence in the place of his adoption, and for some generations his posterity were people of wealth and influence in their native place. Within forty years after the first location of emigrants to Bass River, John Leak, Charles Loveland, Francis French and Jeremiah Baker, were residents of the place.

At a later date Micajah, Job and Eli, sons of great John Mathis, and Caleb, son of Stephen Cranmer, were men of high standing. John Leak was a sea captain, and commanded a privateer during the Revolutionary war; he was also captain of militia, and a deputy surveyor, a profession which at that time made him a man of note. Charles Loveland was a sea captain, and followed bringing negro slaves from Guinea to the American colonies.

The first locators in Bass River were Quakers, and at an early date there was a Quaker meeting-house built in the place, and about the time of the Revolutionary war the Methodists obtained a foothold in that settlement, and the Presbyterian missionaries used to put up and hold meetings at Captain Charles Loveland's and Captain John Leaks. It seems that Rev. John Brainard visited this place, in coming from Manahawkin to Bass River he had to pass through Tuckerton, but he does not make any statement of the fact. No doubt he found Tuckerton such a thorough Quaker stronghold that he considered it useless to endeavor to try to make proselytes there, and in consequence shook the dust off his feet and left for Bass River where there were people who were not Quakers.

After the last-named generation had passed away, among the men of their class may be counted Enoch Mathis, Barzilla Mathis, Benjamin Mathis, Job Mathis, Jeremiah Mathis, Josephus Sears, Joseph Allen, Esq., Caleb Cranmer, Esq.,Isaac Cranmer, William Leak, Charles Adams, Charles Loveland, Thomas French, Sr., and a few others. Robert McKean and Samuel Taggert were merchants and traders in general. After this last-named generation, came into the list of the principal men of the place Captain William French, Francis French, William Allen, Esq., Isaiah Adams, Joseph Baker Cranmer, Caleb S. Cranmer, Caleb Cranmer, Ebenezer Sooy and others. Recompense Darby held the office of constable for more than twenty years.

There has been considerable ship building done in Bass River, and its inhabitants are of the seafaring class. Large quantities of wood, rails and charcoal were formerly exported from Bass River to New York and other cities. At the present time, the principal business and other influential men of Bass River, may be found among the Frenches, Adamses, Cranmers, Mathises, Sooys, Lovelands, &c.

Bass River township contains one Methodist and one Presbyterian church, and has five district schools. New Gretna is the principal village, and the post office is kept here. The population of the township is 1003.

The cultivation of cranberries is carried on to some extent in this township. There is a great amount of valuable cranberry soil within its boundaries.

Bass river is noted for its valuable winter fisheries.

Among the sea captains of former days were Barzilla Mathis, John Cranmer, Josiah Cale, William Leak, Sr., Uriah Cranmer, John Carlisle, William French, Caleb Cranmer, Ebenezer Sooy, and perhaps others of whom I have not been informed. With the exception of Captain William French, all of those old-time captains have sailed away to the spirit land.

The saw-mill at the head of the west branch of Bass river was erected at an early date. In the year 1767, it was sold by high Sheriff Imley, and was then called Baker's mill, probably after its founder. Eli Mathis, Sr., was the purchaser of the mill at the sheriff's sale; and in the same year Eli sold the mill tract, containing twenty-one acres, and also one-half of the mill to his brother, Micajah Mathis, Sr., and it is probable that these two men sold the mill and the twenty-one-acre survey to Ebenezer Tucker, who owned the mill a long time. In the year 1778, this mill was burnt by the British.

It is said that Francis French. Sr., was the founder of the Cranmer saw-mill.

"Harrisville, situated on a branch of Wading river, about seven miles from its mouth, is the seat of a flourishing paper-mill, owned by the Messrs. Harris', formerly of Philadelphia. In this mill an excellent quality of brown paper is manufactured, largely from the salt grasses which grow in great abundance in the townships of Bass River and Little Egg Harbor. This mill was erected some forty or fifty years ago, and was owned by an incorporated company, and was operated under the management of a gentleman named McCarty. He or the company spent a great deal of money in improving and beautifying the place. The water-power is excellent. Henry C. Carey, Esq., the distinguished writer on political economy, was a frequent visitor at this place when it was under the management of Mr. McCarty.

Bass River township was cut off from, Little Egg Harbor, and a part of Washington, in 1864. It is bounded on the north by Randolph and Woodland townships, on the east by Little Egg Harbor, on the south by Mullica river, on the west by Wading river, which separates it from Randolph township.

Ebenezer Tucker, member of Congress and also judge of court.
Doctor Thomas Page, State Legislator, Republican.
Elihu Mathis, State Legislator, Republican.
Isaiah Adams, State Legislator, Republican.
Stephen Willits, State Legislator, Democrat.
Jarves H. Bartlett, State Legislator, Republican.
Doctor T.T. Price, State Legislator, Republican.
Levi French of Bass River, State Legislator, Democrat.
Joseph W. Pharo, State Senator, Republican.
John D. Thomson, Sheriff of Burlington County, Republican.

In the following list will be found the names of some of the men who were heads of families, and were living in Little Egg Harbor at the time of the Revolutionary war:

Peter Parker, Joseph Parker 2nd, Samuel Rose, Wm. Rose, Peter Andrews 2nd, Adam Petitt, Jonathan Petitt, Joseph Lippincott, Robert Ridgway, David Falkinburg, Solomon Rockhill, Sr., Moses Mulliner, John Moody, Joseph Shourds, Sr., Daniel Shourds, Sr., Job Carr, Joseph Carr, Joseph Gauntt, Hananiah Gauntt, John Gauntt, Reuben Tucker, Isaac Andrews, Jacob Andrews, Jonathan Gifford, Gentleman John Ridgway, James Willits 2nd, Job Ridgway, Jeremiah Ridgway, John Ridgway, John Falkinburg, James Belangee, Henry Willits, Jacob Falkinburg, Richard Osborn Jr., John Berry, Carpenter John Mathis, Nehemiah Mathis, Hezekiah Mathis, John Mathis, Sr., Hezekiah Adams, Sr., John Leak, Edward Allen, Peter Allen, Jacob Cranmer, Semor Cranmer, Francis French, Sr., Charles Loveland, Sr., Caleb Cranmer, Eli Mathis, Sr., Ephraim Morse, and probably a number of others whose names cannot be designated with certainty.

In the year 1761, Richard Osborn, Jr., Jacob Falkinburg and others applied to have the present Island road laid out, and it was accordingly established as requested from the main land to Mullica river. The names of the surveyors of the highway who laid out the road were for Little Egg Harbor, Zachariah Rossel; Northampton, John Atkinson; Evesham, Jacob Prickitt and Isaac Evans.

The old stage road from Tuckerton to the Lumberton road, the other side of Atsion, was established in the year 1798; Jarvis Pharo 2nd being the surveyor. I have Jarvis Pharo's map of the above said road, and from that it is evident that there was a stage plying between Tuckerton and Philadelphia as early as 1798 and there might have been one before this date notwithstanding all that is said to the contrary.

In the year 1816, John Halleck, a public Friend, came from the State of New York to Tuckerton, where he purchased the Nathan Bartlett farm, and entered into the business of raising castor beans and manufacturing them into castor oil, which at that time brought a remunerative price. Halleck initiated some of the farmers of the place into the mysteries of his occupation. They embarked in the castor bean trade, which to most of them proved to be a profitable business, in one instance laying the foundation for the largest fortune ever made in the place, but through the roguery of this one, Halleck, who had taught him the way to wealth, was made a bankrupt; but this perfidious affair laid the foundation for the castor bean aristocracy of Tuckerton.

In his old age and the days of his poverty, John Halleck frequently made visits to my father, and I have prepared many a meal's victuals for poor wronged John Halleck, and after he left the house my father would remark that Mr. _____, who had ruined Halleck, ought to keep him a gentleman until the end of his life, but such rascals seldom make restitution.