The sons of David Hitchner-Hiram Hitchner, Dr. The land on which most of Elmer was built was owned by David Hitchner, who purchased it from John Elwell, who was a blacksmith, wheelwright, and owned much property. The railroad served as the hub of a thriving potato market with farmer’s wagons filling the area around the station on delivery days. The railroad bed, once the bustling center of town activity but now abandoned and the rails removed, still marks the dividing line between north and south Main Street.Īccording to the Elmer Times, Elmer’s industries in the early 1900s included two large glass and shoe factories, two saw mills, several feed mills and sewing factories. Soils in the area are very fertile, making it an ideal place for agriculture and nursery businesses.Įlmer flourished as a transportation center with the opening of the West Jersey Railroad line between Bridgeton and Woodbury in 1862. Elmer is in the center of an area of Salem County which exceeds 100 feet above sea level. Then Elmer also acquired the nickname of "Terrapin Town."Įlmer straddles part of the dividing line between Pittsgrove and Upper Pittsgrove Townships, and is located along Elmer Lake (on the Muddy Run). However, when the postal service came to New Jersey, it was discovered there already was a Pittstown in North Jersey. ![]() Then the town was named after Lord Pitt of the English Parliament, and became Pittstown (this name is on the cornerstone of the earliest portion of the Elmer United Methodist Church). In 1801, the Indians gave up all title to lands in the state.īesides Cohockan, Elmer had a variety of other names. Most of the Delawares left the state and joined the Iroquois in New York. At that time the stream was an excellent source of fresh water and fish. ![]() These people used the little stream, Muddy Run, whose headwaters are in Upper Pittsgrove Township, and its confluence with the Maurice River a short distance above what is Union Lake in Millville. They came to Elmer when it was a wilderness. Europeans named them "Delawares" after the river by which most of them lived. These Indians were a division of the Algonquin Tribe. As a Congressman, Elmer was largely responsible for securing a post office for the town.Įlmer was originally called "Cohockan," which means "cedar swamp land," by Lenni Lenape Indians, who camped there while on hunting trips from Delaware. The town was named after Judge Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Elmer, a jurist respected state-wide, who had presided over Salem County’s then-famous Treadway murder case and also produced the first compendium of New Jersey state statutes. ![]() Elmer was formed on the dividing line of Pittsgrove and Upper Pittsgrove Townships and incorporated as a borough via public referendum January 24, 1893.
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