Skillman is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) located within Montgomery Township, in Somerset County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

.GCT-PH1 - Population, Housing Units, Area, and Density: 2010 - County -- County Subdivision and Place from the 2010 Census Summary File 1 for Somerset County, New Jersey
,

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

. Accessed February 13, 2013.New Jersey: 2010 - Population and Housing Unit Counts - 2010 Census of Population and Housing (CPH-2-32)

, August 2012. Accessed February 13, 2013. As of the 2010 United States Census, the CDP's population was 242.DP-1 - Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Demographic Profile Data for Skillman CDP, New Jersey
,

. Accessed February 13, 2013. The area is served as

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...

ZIP Code 08558. However, the Skillman postal address covers an area significantly larger than the Skillman CDP. The Skillman postal address services approximately half of the and approximately 23,000 residents comprising Montgomery Township. The small CDP designated as Skillman and the much larger area known as Skillman based on the post office delivery area (which encompasses the Skillman CDP), are not the same. The Skillman postal area is home to

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technologies corporation headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Its common stock is a c ...

's Consumer Products division and

Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately-held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Ze ...

Financial's offices. All of the public school buildings (elementary, middle and high schools) for Montgomery Township are located in the Skillman postal area.

History

Skillman is named after the Skillman family. The first Skillmans were Dutch, but lived in England before moving to

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

in 1664, according to family accounts. In 1729, Thomas Skillman ventured westward, buying some of farmland on the Millstone River, near the village of Rocky Hill, for his sons, Jan and Isaac. That purchase was the Skillman family's entry into Montgomery. The Skillman area got its name when the railroads arrived in the 1870s, according to the Skillman family. Joseph A. Skillman, was a teamster who owned "wild Missouri mules," according to family accounts. When railroad workers were trying to lay tracks, their horses got bogged down in thick, clay mud, and Joseph A. Skillman came to the rescue with his mules. Railroad officials also socialized at the home of another Skillman nearby, and the new train station was named for the family. A post office opened in the station and a small village, with a hay press, feed store and hardware store, sprouted around it. It took the Skillman name, too. (While the train station is gone, remnants of the village still exist at the spot where Camp Meeting Avenue and Skillman Road meet. A clay and sculpting supply business occupies some of the buildings.) Also in Skillman was the sprawling New Jersey State Village for Epileptics, a complex opened around 1900 that had its own dairy, laundry, and movie theater. Visitors would arrive by train. Skillman was a busy little country place. There were 1,637 residents in Montgomery in 1910, compared with more than 23,000 now, according to Census data. The community now has more traffic, fewer farms and more houses (specifically developments). In 2011, Montgomery Township sold what remained of the North Princeton Developmental Center (also known as Skillman Village) to Somerset County in order for the village to be demolished.

Geography

According to the

, the CDP had a total area of 1.476 square miles (3.824 km²), including 1.466 square miles (3.798 km²) of land and 0.010 square miles (0.026 km²) of water (0.69%).

Demographics

2010 census

The 2010 United States census counted 242 people, 87 households, and 72 families in the CDP. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 99 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup was 91.32% (221)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.41% (1) Black or African American, 0.41% (1) Native American, 2.48% (6) Asian, 0.00% (0)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 2.89% (7) from other races, and 2.48% (6) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.20% (15) of the population. Of the 87 households, 35.6% had children under the age of 18; 72.4% were married couples living together; 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present and 17.2% were non-families. Of all households, 12.6% were made up of individuals and 6.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.78 and the average family size was 3.06. 23.1% of the population were under the age of 18, 3.3% from 18 to 24, 20.2% from 25 to 44, 38.8% from 45 to 64, and 14.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 47.0 years. For every 100 females, the population had 98.4 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 91.8 males.

Notable people

People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Skillman include: *

Sara Josephine Baker Sara Josephine Baker (November 15, 1873 – February 22, 1945) was an American physician notable for making contributions to public health, especially in the immigrant communities of New York City. Her fight against the damage that widespread ur ...

(1873–1945), pioneering physician; resident of Trevenna Farm with Wylie. * Ira Black (1941–2006),

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, Biological neural network, neural circuits, and glia, and their Behavior, behavioral, biological, and psycholo ...

and

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

researcher who served as the first director of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. * Yvonne Brill (1924–2013), rocket scientist. *

Louis Gambaccini Louis J. Gambaccini (May 6, 1931 – August 19, 2018) was an American government official who spent his career in the area of transportation. He was a graduate of the University of Connecticut and received a masters in public administration from ...

(1931–2018), government official who spent his career in the area of

transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

.Tate, Curtis
"Louis Gambaccini, former NJDOT chief and NJ Transit's first chairman, dies at 87"
''

The Record The Record may refer to: Music * The Record (Fear album), ''The Record'' (Fear album), a 1982 studio album by the hardcore-punk band Fear * The Record (Boygenius album), ''The Record'' (Boygenius album), a 2023 studio album by the indie rock supe ...

'', August 20, 2018. Accessed April 10, 2023. "Louis Gambaccini, a former state transportation commissioner and the first chairman of NJ Transit's board, died at his home in Skillman on Sunday, the agency announced Monday. He was 87." * John Sheridan (1942–2014), Former New Jersey Transportation Commissioner and head of Cooper Health System; lived in Skillman along with his wife at the time of their controversial deaths. * I. A. R. Wylie (1885–1959), popular writer; resident of Trevenna Farm with Baker.''My Life with George: An Unconventional Autobiography'' by I. A. R. Wylie
The Neglected Books Page, May 27, 2012. Accessed February 13, 2013. "When Baker retired in the mid-1930s, she, Wylie, and another pioneering female physician, Dr. Louise Pearce, bought Trevenna Farm, outside Skillman, New Jersey, and lived there together."

References

{{Authority control Census-designated places in Somerset County, New Jersey Census-designated places in New Jersey Montgomery Township, New Jersey 1729 establishments in New Jersey