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Preserving the Legacy of 2000-2003
Our History
Long Hill Township is the southernmost township in Morris County.  It is bounded on the west and south by the Passaic River.  Passaic is an Indian word for "valley".
In 1838, a Post Office was established at "Long Hill".  Three years later (1841), a new post office at Millington replaced an earlier post office at "Millington (Somerset County)" which had been in service since 1817.
In 1866, Passaic Township was established when the southern portion of Morris Township was granted its autonomy.  This happened a year after the Passaic Valley and Peapack Railroad was chartered (1865) to build a railroad through the town.
  • New Jersey had about 100 townships at the time of the American Revolution.  These townships were later divided to reach the current count of 566.  Between the mid 1800's and the early 1900's, new townships were created at the rate of about five per year.
In 1871, the New Jersey West Line railroad was completed through Passaic Township.  The railroad shaped the industrial development of the town, and later its evolution to a semi-rural commuter residential paradise.
In 1922, the citizens in the northern part of Passaic Township (the area around Logansville, New Vernon and Green Village) induced the State Legislature to split Passaic Township and create the new Harding Township.   Details 
In 1924, the residents of Millington tried the same thing.  They got the Legislature to pass a law, "subject to local referendum", but the referendum failed.
In 1992, the residents of the township passed a binding referendum to reclaim the township's original name of Long Hill.  This step was taken to eliminate confusion between our township and the City of Passaic, which is 48 miles downstream on the Passaic River in Passaic County.
Township official seal The township now consists of Gillette, Homestead Park, Meyersville, Millington and Stirling.  The five stars on the township seal represent the five villages.
  • Meyersville, the oldest settlement in town, was owned in the 1600s by Joel Bebout.  He received the land as a grant from the King of France.  The village was named for Kasper W. Meyer, a wealthy landholder in the community, who deeded a tract of land to be used for a German church and cemetery.
  • Millington was a major settlement begun in the 1730s.  It is believed Millington received its name between 1778 and 1833 because of water-powered mills built below the Millington Gorge.  A public school was built about 1850, and that schoolhouse has served as the Municipal Building of Long Hill Township since 1871.
  • Gillette was named in 1870-1871 by George Howell, an engineer who surveyed for the construction of the West Line Railroad, which ran from Bernardsville to Summit.  The railroad was given a right of way for the station and tracks as it passed through the Cornish farm in Passaic Township.  Howell named the village Gillette to honor the Cornish family. He had married Rachel Gillette Cornish, and he chose his wife's middle name for this part of town.
  • Stirling was settled in 1740.  It was named by Fred S. Winston who purchased about 500 acres of land in the area for development.  He named the area after Lord Stirling who had owned 1,000 acres of land lying on both sides of the Passaic River.  A manufacturing and residential community was developed in the area  of the railroad in the decades after the Civil War.
  • Homestead Park, purchased in the 1730's, is the easternmost section of the township.  Homestead Park was named in 1920 by developer L. Preston Gates.  It was one of the first major residential developments in the township.
View photos of many Historical Markers in Long Hill Township on our 2003 Municipal Calendar.

For curiousity value, you might want to see a 1905 topographic map of Passaic Township.  It is large, and you will have to scroll around to use it.  Courtesy of unh.edu.

The New Jersey League of Historical Societies maintains a list of all the Historical Societies in New Jersey.  It is somewhat out-of-date.

The Morris County Heritage Commission website also lists valuable information about local preservation.


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History and the Historical Society
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