Hoist up the banners, toss the confetti, and light up the candles!
You all have no doubt been celebrating with appropriate excitement and revelry the March 1 anniversary of the effective creation of our township, right?
In case some of you have somehow overlooked the reason for our town-wide merriment and jubilant observances, on February 22, 1834, the New Jersey Legislature passed a law, approving the renaming of a portion of Trenton Township as the “Township of Ewing,” to be effective March 1, 1834. Thus, Ewing’s “birthday” is March 1.
Of course, the place we know as Ewing now had been previously known by several other names. In the late 1600s or so, when European immigrants began settling here in numbers, we were part of a big chunk of West Jersey designated as Burlington County.
“Our” portion of that was then designated as Maidenhead Township, which was subsequently divided up into Hopewell and Maidenhead townships in 1700 – but still in an area known as Burlington County.
The next division came in 1714, when the area of Burlington County north of the Assunpink River was separated out of Burlington County, and became Hunterdon County.
A few years later, in March of 1720, the Hunterdon Court created “Trenton Township” within the County, comprising the growing region bounded by the Delaware, the Assunpink and Jacob’s Creek (essentially present-day Trenton and Ewing). These names, divisions and boundaries remained throughout most of the 1700s, despite significant growth and even a Revolution!
In 1792, the city folks in Trenton wanted to become a separate governing entity, so the City of Trenton was incorporated, but still technically within Trenton Township.
In 1794, the people in the rural sections of Trenton Township (that would be us!) made a brief but unsuccessful attempt at separating from Trenton Township and becoming the “Township of Independence.”
But interest in separating from Trenton Township remained at some level, and forty years later, it was successful. The legislative act was approved on February 22, 1834, and became effective a week or so later, on March 1. Ewing Township was created – born – made – named! It was still in Hunterdon County (Mercer County was formed from portions of Hunterdon County in 1838), but Ewing Township was a thing.
The name, Ewing, was in honor of Charles Ewing, a prominent attorney, counselor, judge and NJ State Supreme Court Justice, and a highly respected and beloved individual who had passed away suddenly in 1832 from (likely) Asiatic cholera. Naming the new township after Justice Ewing was an honorable and appropriate way to memorialize his life.
So, here we are in 2024, and if my math is right, that makes us 190 years old. (I do hope those of you who celebrated with cake and candles used a single candle for each decade or something.
One hundred and ninety candles on a cake would have resulted in pretty waxy pieces of cake — not to mention a wildly dangerous situation!)
All kidding aside, with ten years to go until we actually might joyfully celebrate a 200-year anniversary, it might be time to begin to think about the Ewing we would like to celebrate.
There are certainly great things happening in our township right now:
• Progress is moving along at the Ewing Town Center on the old General Motors site. Residents have moved in, and the commercial development and live/work area along Parkway Avenue is growing every day. In ten years, it will be an established development and “old news.”
• The Ewing Historical Society has been working for a few years now on creating the Ewing Museum, to showcase and interpret various aspects of life in Ewing.
• The Ewing Green Team has been endeavoring to make our township more sustainable – greener, safer, and more “user-friendly.”
Undoubtedly many others within our township are taking opportunities to improve and enhance life in our township.
I hope that many more individuals, groups and entities will also begin to consider the ways, large and small, in which we may bring even more improvements to our township for the wonderful people who live and work here, so that when 2034 comes along, we will actually have a great celebration!
Helen Kull is an advisor with the Ewing Township Historic Preservation Society.
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