township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, United States, that existed from 1797 until it was dissolved in 1918.
History
The township was originally formed on April 10, 1797, from portions of
Saddle River Township
Saddle Brook is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 13,659, reflecting an increase of 504 (+3.8%) from the 13,155 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in t ...
Passaic County, New Jersey
Passaic County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of New Jersey that is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the population of Passaic County was enumerated at 524,118, an increase of 22,892 (4.6%) from t ...
was established on February 7, 1837, it included Pompton Township.
The borough of
Pompton Lakes, New Jersey
Pompton Lakes is a borough in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 11,097,Boroughitis
Boroughitis (also borough fever or borough mania) was the creation in the 1890s, usually by referendum, of large numbers of small boroughs in the U.S. state of New Jersey, particularly in Bergen County. Attempts by the New Jersey Legislature t ...
" phenomenon, as the second municipality to split from the township. The township was divided on February 23, 1918, into three
boroughs
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
: Bloomingdale, Ringwood and Wanaque, with the remaining portion passing to Pompton Lakes. This ended the existence of the township.
According to news accounts at the time of the split, local leaders from the various communities felt that the population growth within the township was a hindrance to the ability of the Township Committee to govern. Citizens of
Haskell
Haskell () is a general-purpose, statically-typed, purely functional programming language with type inference and lazy evaluation. Designed for teaching, research and industrial applications, Haskell has pioneered a number of programming lan ...
(now part of Wanaque) had begun to discuss the formation of their own borough and this prompted citizens in the other sections to follow their lead. A significant portion of the land was sparsely populated and the split off of one community would leave a larger tax burden on those that remained.
A meeting was called for January 12, 1918, to discuss the pros and cons of splitting the township. From that, a committee representing the various sections was formed and eventually three boroughs were agreed on, the boundaries established and finances settled (share of debt, distribution of assets). In addition, the township school district was similarly divided into the separate districts for each borough. The vote to split was approved in all three sections in February.
The final Township Committee meeting took place on May 14, 1918, in Midvale to finalize the disbursement of cash in the township treasury to the three boroughs and pay off remaining debt owed to the county.
Based on data from the
2010 United States Census
The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...
, the combined population of the five municipalities that were formed from Pompton Township -- Bloomingdale (7,656), Pompton Lakes (11,097), Ringwood (12,228), Wanaque (11,116) and West Milford (25,850) -- was 67,947, which would have made Pompton the 16th largest municipality in the state (and fourth largest in Passaic County, not far behind
Passaic
Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69,7 ...
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...