Bass River
Bass River

UPDATE Pete has put up a new Bass River history site, located at http://bassriver-nj.org/history/index.php.

Bass River beats the world on rats. A mother and daughter killed thirty-seven one day last week, the largest of which weighed six pounds and three quarter.

from the New Jersey Courier, March 23, 1876


This page will contain any references I find to Bass River, which is the next township east of Washington Township. Writing in 1883, Major E.M. Woodard claimed the population to be about 900 souls. Today it is mostly part of Bass River State Forest. Apparently iron had been discovered by the late 19th century but had never been exploited; the hey day of Pine Barrens iron manufacture had been over for nearly half a century in places like Batsto, Hampton Gate, and Bricksburg..

According to Woodard, the first white settler in Bass River was an Englishman named John Mathis, who came from Long Island in 1713. This is the man commonly referred to in genealogies as the "Great John Mathis." Shortly after, Mathis, along with Moses Forman and William Birdsall, purchased from one Daniel Leeds (one of the New Jersey proprietors) a tract of 250 acres. At that time it was known as Biddle's Island, and when Woodard was writing (1882) it was apparently known as Daniel Mathis' Island. After that, John Mathis appears to have purchased many tracts of cedar swamp and woodland. Eventually he would own thousands of acres in the region.

Sixteen years after Mathis first settled in Bass River, Stephen Cranmer arrived in the area to settle. He was apparently considered one of the wealthiest men in Bass River.

The third major settler in Bass River was one Francis French, sr.; it is uncertain when he arrived although Woodard believed it was sometime prior to the Revolution. Other early families in the area were the Leak, Sears, and Loveland families.

According to local historian Peter H. Stemmer,
"Early Bass River consisted mainly of large farms owned by the Mathis, Cranmer, and Allen families. There was no town as we know it today. The first area to be called Bass River was the present Pilgrim Lake Campground-Fir Bridge area. A sawmill and the old Bass River Hotel were built here before the Revolutionary War. The hotel housed a post office, tavern, and stagecoach stop on the much traveled stage road from Tuckerton to Philadelphia and was an important landmark in the area for many years. It closed in 1855 as a result of the town center shifting two miles down Allentown Road, now North Maple Avenue, to New Gretna."
[above passage quoted with author's permission from the Bass River Gazette, October 1998}]


There were several religious denominations in Bass River from the early days. Firstly, there was a Friends Meeting nearby (on the road between Bass River and Bridgeport) from Revolutionary times. There was a schism in the Quaker religion around that time, with the Bridgeport meeting going over to the side of the Hicksite denomination. By 1834, the Quakers were all but nonexistent in the area---only one remained, Lucy Ann Evans, who attended meeting faithfully by herself until she died in that year, and there were no more meetings.

Then there was a Methodist Episcopal church, whose origins were lost to history. The building in use in 1883 was not the original, having been built around 1850 on the road from New Gretna to Red Tavern; it boasted thirty members in the 1880s.

But probably the first church in Bass River was the First Presbyterian, early services supposedly being said in the home of Capt. Charles Loveland by Rev. John Brainard. Joseph Cranmer finally gave a lot to the church in 1849 to erect a real building, so that services no longer need be held in private dwellings and school houses. In 1882 it had only half the membership of the M.E church.


The main industry in the late 19th century was ship building. Other industries included sawmills, one having been built very early (prior to 1767) at the head of the west branch of the Bass River. Another, Page's Saw Mill, was erected by Ebenezer Tucker about 1800. This was on the west branch of the Bass River and operated until about 1881. Early in the 19th century lumber and charcoal were major exports from Bass River though this seems to have slowed by the 1880s.

Items of interest concerning the area occasionally made their way up north to Ocean County, appearing in the Toms River newspaper, New Jersey Courier. I list those items that I find on the Bass River News Page.

Other residents of Bass Township included:
Joseph Loveland, son of Towers and Mary E. Loveland. He died on October 19, 1875, at the age of 5 years, 1 mo. It is possible that diptheria was the cause, as an article appeared in the New Jersey Courier two days later stating that "the diptheria is still raging at Bass River, which place seems to be a favorite resort for the seathing disease. The graveyards of Bass River are densely populated with dearly loved ones who have died of diptheria."

On a much happier note, the marriage of a Bass River citizen, Lemeul Cramer, to Leah A. Maxwell of Wading River appeared in the March 16, 1876 issue; the wedding took place on the fifth.


It is important to note that there is a distinction between the township of Bass River and the town of Bass River; the town no longer has that name, and by as early as 1850 it was already being called "New Gretna". E.M. Woodward had this to say about that village's history in 1883:
"...is located in the southeastern portion of the township, and is a small and somewhat scattered hamlet. It contains one Methodist and one Presbyterian Church, one hotel, one wheelwright shop, one blacksmith shop, post office, four stores, and a few scattered dwellings..

The hotel was erected in 1851, by Thomas French , who carried on the business for a short time, and was succeeded by Franklin Adams, who purchased the property in 1856, and has carried on the business since.

Among the early merchants of New Gretna was John Miller, who carried on the business as early as 1812 for a period of years. He was succeeded by William Allen, who carried on the business for a period of twenty-five years. Since that time there has been a succession of merchants in New Gretna. The present merchant is Francis French.

Adolphus H. Lansing erected a wheelwright-shop in 1856, and did quite an extensive business in the manufacture of heavy wagons, which he shipped to the Western States. The wheelwright business is still carried on by Mr. Lansing. Among the early blacksmith shops in Bass River was the one erected by Caleb Cranmer, who rented it to John M. Cook, who carried on blacksmithing for several years. The present blacksmith is Joseph Truax. The post office at New Gretna was established in about 1853, with Franklin Adams as postmaster, which position he now holds. The office was formerly kept in a store erected by Mr. Adams. At the time he purchased the hotel property it was moved to a building adjacent to the hotel, where it is at present located.

The first physician to locate at New Gretna was Dr. P.K. Hillier, in 1866, who followed the healing art for several years, and was succeeded by Dr. Stamly G. Clark, and he by the present physician, Dr. Moses W. Reeves."

I have just begun posting the 1910 Census for Bass River Township! The first 25 homes have been posted so far... you can find them here!.


Old Buildings in Bass River
Recently I took a drive down Route 9 through Bass River and took some photos of crumbling, abandoned buildings on the side of the road. If anyone knows what any of them are, please send us an e-mail at [email protected]

My favorite was this gas station, but unfortunately I somehow screwed up the photo of the front of the building. The third photo above though was the yard behind the gas station.

You can see close up images of the gas pumps in front of it by clicking here, here, and here.

This page was last updated on November 9th, 2007.