Build Your Own New Jersey Quiz - By mikenew

Build Your Own New Jersey

Can you work through the creation of New Jersey's 21 counties in the same order it actually happened? More Info

By mikenew

Quiz Details

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Historical Context

It is March of 1683, and you are tasked with chartering four counties in the colony of East Jersey. You start with this northernmost section bordering the Province of New York.

You move down to this next county, which is very roughly bound by the Passaic River in the north and the southernmost branch of the Rahway River in the south.

Continuing south, you bestow this name upon the areas on either bank of the Raritan River, including the future sites of two colonial colleges.

You wrap up your subdivision of East Jersey with this huge swath of sandy land in the southernmost part of the province, running along the ocean.

It is now May of 1688, and burgeoning Middlesex County has become too cumbersome. You decide to set apart the western half of the land as this new county.

Jump ahead to November 1692 in West Jersey. Settlers have been busy setting up towns, so you decide it's time to set boundaries in this county centered on the provincial capital.

You continue firming up the map with this southernmost part of West Jersey, a peninsula that saw its court established back in 1685.

Still in 1692, you set the boundaries for this middle area stretching from the Delaware River to the ocean, which established a court in May of 1686.

In a tradition that will carry on for centuries, you overlook this southwest portion of West Jersey. You go back in May 1694 and set the boundaries for the province's final county.

It is March 1714: East and West are finally one. To celebrate, you take the northern bits of Burlington County and combine them with unorganized land to the north to create this.

It is now 1739. You underestimated how much land there was out west when you drummed up Hunterdon County, so you take a huge northern chunk and christen it this.

Jump to January 1748. Down south, you've decided to split Salem County in half. You start at the mouth of Stow Creek and zigzag your way toward creating this county.

A few short years later, in June 1753, you draw a line through Morris County from New York to Lake Hopatcong, then down the Musconetcong. The western part becomes this county.

You sleep through revolution and wake up in the State of New Jersey in November 1824. To shake off the rust, you cleave Sussex County in two and name the southern half this.

It's February 1837 and you're feeling good. It seems coast-to-coast counties have outlived their usefulness, so you remove the oceanward half of Gloucester County and call it this.

That same day, you carve out a distorted hourglass shape from the western half of Bergen County to form this culturally and geographically disparate county.

One year later, you get creative. You take parts of Hunterdon and Middlesex, the northern tip of Burlington and (a few days later) a bit of Somerset to create this capital county.

Skip ahead to February 1840. Though it's small by area, the southeastern part of Bergen County is becoming quite large in terms of population, so you lop it off as this county.

March, 1844. Spurned by a lover from Woodbury or Mullica Hill, you halve Gloucester County a second time. You break off an area north of Big Timber Creek and end up with this.

The calendar reads February 1850. After 167 years, you're nearly ready to hang up your map and marker. You relieve Monmouth County of its woodsy southern half to make this county.

Last, but not least, you take the lower third of Essex County and set it aside as this county. It is March of 1857, and at long last, your work is done. Time for another nap.

References

Some liberties may have been taken in the storytelling, but not with the dates or the details of which counties begat which counties.