Bernards Township, New Jersey
Encyclopedia
History
Bernards Township was originally formed by Royal CharterRoyal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
in 1760 as Bernardston Township from remaining portions of Northern precinct. It was incorporated as Bernards Township as one of New Jersey's initial group of 104 townships by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature
New Jersey Legislature
The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and the Senate...
on February 21, 1798. Portions of the township were taken to form Warren Township
Warren Township, New Jersey
Warren Township is a Township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 15,311....
(March 5, 1806), Far Hills
Far Hills, New Jersey
Far Hills is a borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the population was 919.Far Hills was incorporated as a borough based on an Act of the New Jersey Legislature passed on April 7, 1921, from portions of Bernards Township, subject to the results...
(April 7, 1921) and Bernardsville
Bernardsville, New Jersey
Bernardsville is a borough and affluent suburb in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. Bernardsville has the 10th-highest per capita income in the state. Nationwide, Bernardsville ranks 75th among the 100 highest-income places in the United States...
(March 6, 1924). Bernards Township now comprises Basking Ridge, Liberty Corner, Lyons, and West Millington and celebrated its 250th charter anniversary on May 24, 2010.
Demographics
At the 2000 censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
, there were 24,575 people, 9,242 households and 6,487 families residing in the township. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,023.8 per square mile (395.4/km²). There were 9,485 housing units at an average density of 395.1 per square mile (152.6/km²). The racial makeup of the township was 89.20% White, 1.44% African American, 0.05% Native American, 7.85% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.40% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 1.05% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.63% of the population.
There were 9,242 households of which 37.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.0% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 5.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.8% were non-families. 26.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.17.
Age distribution was 27.7% under the age of 18, 3.2% from 18 to 24, 31.2% from 25 to 44, 25.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 94.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.0 males.
Local government
Bernards Township operates under the TownshipTownship (New Jersey)
A township, in the context of New Jersey local government, refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government. As a political entity, a township is a full-fledged municipality, on par with any town, city, borough, or village, collecting property taxes and providing...
form of New Jersey municipal government. The Township Committee consists of five members, elected by the public in partisan elections for three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with one or two seats coming up for election each year. In the Township Committee form of government, all legislative and executive powers of the Township are the responsibility of the Township Committee, except in matters of health. The Mayor is elected by the committee from among its members at the annual Reorganization meeting held in January. In the Township Committee form of government, all members have equal power and may vote on all issues.
, members of the Township Committee are Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
John Malay, Deputy Mayor
Deputy Mayor
Deputy mayor is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official in many local governments. Many elected deputy mayors are members of the city council who are given the title and serve as acting mayor in the mayor's absence...
Mary Pavlini, John Carpenter, Carolyn Gaziano and Scott Spitzer.
Federal, state and county representation
Bernards Township is in the 11th Congressional district and is part of New Jersey's 16th state legislative district. The township was relocated to the 21st state legislative district by the New Jersey Apportionment CommissionNew Jersey Apportionment Commission
The New Jersey Apportionment Commission is a constitutionally-created ten-member commission responsible for apportioning the forty districts of the New Jersey Legislature. The commission is convened after each decennial U.S. Census, and the districts are to be in use for the legislative elections...
based on the results of the 2010 Census. The new district will be in effect for the June 2011 primary and the November 2011 general election, with the state senator and assembly members elected taking office in the new district as of January 2012.
Elections
In recent years, Bernards Township has leaned toward the Republican PartyRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
on the national and state levels. In the 2008 Presidential Election
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
, Republican candidate John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
received 56% of the vote, over the Democrat candidate Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, who received around 43%. In the 2009 Gubernatorial Election
New Jersey gubernatorial election, 2009
The New Jersey gubernatorial election of 2009 took place on November 3, 2009. Democratic Governor Jon Corzine was running for a second term and was being challenged by Republican Chris Christie, Independent Christopher Daggett and nine others, in addition to several write-in candidates...
, Republican Chris Christie received 59.5% of the vote, over Democrat Jon Corzine
Jon Corzine
Jon Stevens Corzine is the former CEO of Goldman Sachs and of MF Global, and a one time American politician, who served as the 54th Governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. A Democrat, Corzine served five years of a six-year U.S. Senate term representing New Jersey before being elected Governor...
, who received around 26%.
The partnership with Terrebonne Parish
In 2005, after Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
and Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 2005...
, which had a devastating effect on the area, locals from the Bernards Township sent supplies to Houma
Houma, Louisiana
Houma is a city in and the parish seat of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, and the largest principal city of the Houma–Bayou Cane–Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's powers of government have been absorbed by the parish, which is now run by the Terrebonne Parish...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
.
In 2007, the Parish returned the favor by sending The Terrebonne High School
Terrebonne High School
Terrebonne High School is a secondary school in Houma, Louisiana, United States.It is a part of the Terrebonne Parish School District.It has been in existence since 1908, and houses grades 10-12; freshmen attend Houma Junior High School. It is the second oldest accredited high school in the state...
Marching band on a 26-hour bus ride to the Bernards Township to march in their Christmas parade, and perform a Christmas concert for the public at a local church.
Personal income
The median household incomeMedian household income
The median household income is commonly used to generate data about geographic areas and divides households into two equal segments with the first half of households earning less than the median household income and the other half earning more...
was $107,204, and the median family income was $135,806 (these figures had risen to $115,582 and $149,900 respectively in a 2007 estimate). Males had a median income of $95,758 versus $60,865 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the township was $56,521. About 0.6% of families and 1.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.2% of those under age 18 and 2.9% of those age 65 or over.
Industry
The headquarters of AvayaAvaya
Avaya Inc. is a privately held computer networking, information technology and telecommunications company that is a global provider of business communications systems. The international head quarters is in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States...
, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers
Barnes & Noble College Booksellers
Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, Inc. operates bookstores at more than 600 U.S. colleges and universities. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers is a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc., which acquired it in 2009. It was formerly a separate company, and Barnes & Noble chairman Leonard S. Riggio...
, Fedders
Fedders
Fedders Corporation manufactures air conditioners and other air treatment products. The company is French and was founded in Paris, France. US company headquarters are in Liberty Corner, New Jersey....
, Hitachi Power Systems USA and Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless
Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....
are located in town. Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average...
, which technically keeps its world headquarters in New York City, has located operations of its major business units in buildings that were formerly AT&T's world headquarters.
Education
Students in kindergarten through twelfth grade are educated by the Bernards Township School DistrictBernards Township School District
The Bernards Township School District is a comprehensive community public school district, serving students in Kindergarten through twelfth grade from Bernards Township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States....
. The schools in the district (with 2005-06 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics
National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance information in the United States...
) include four K-5 elementary schools —
Cedar Hill Elementary School with 606 students;
Liberty Corner Elementary School with 607 students;
Mount Prospect Elementary School with 756 students and
Oak Street Elementary School with 604 students (including pre-K);
William Annin Middle School with 1,347 students in grades 6 - 8; and
Ridge High School
Ridge High School
Ridge High School is a four-year public high school serving students from Bernards Township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Bernards Township School District...
, with 1,697 students in grades 9 - 12. Cedar Hill Elementary currently houses a state of the art public program for children on the autism spectrum, utilizing the principles of ABA.
Ridge High School was ranked 194th, the second-highest in New Jersey, in Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine's 2010 rankings of America's Best High Schools. The school was the 12th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 322 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly
New Jersey Monthly
New Jersey Monthly is a monthly glossy publication featuring issues of possible interest to residents of the United States state of New Jersey...
magazine's September 2010 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked 24th in 2008 out of 316 schools.
Pingry School
Pingry School
The Pingry School is a coeducational, independent, college preparatory country day school in New Jersey, with a Lower School campus in the Short Hills neighborhood of Millburn, and a Middle and Upper School campus in Martinsville. The school was founded in 1861 by Dr. John F. Pingry.Pingry's...
, a private coeducation
Coeducation
Mixed-sex education, also known as coeducation or co-education, is the integrated education of male and female persons in the same institution. It is the opposite of single-sex education...
al college preparatory
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
day school
Day school
A day school—as opposed to a boarding school—is an institution where children are given educational instruction during the day and after which children/teens return to their homes...
, has its upper campus, for grades 6 to 12, located in Martinsville.
Points of interest
- The Devil's Tree - A solitary oakOakAn oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
tree in a field off Mountain Road in the southern corner of the township that has been subject of several stories in Weird NJWeird NJWeird NJ is the title of a semi-annual magazine and two paranormal travel guides that chronicle local legends, hauntings, ghost stories, folklore and anything considered "weird" in the U.S. state of New Jersey....
magazine. - The Brick AcademyBrick Academyis the nickname for a Federal-style brick building built in 1809 to meet the growing needs of the Basking Ridge Classical School. That school existed prior to 1799, at least 10 years before the construction of this building in 1809. The brick building was constructed for the elementary school run...
- A restoration of what was known as the Basking Ridge Classical School, a prep school for those hoping to attend Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. The Brick Academy is the current home of the Historical Society of the Somerset HillsSomerset HillsThe Somerset Hills is a region in the northern portion of Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, almost entirely north of Interstate 78. It comprises Bernards Township , Bernardsville, Bedminster Township, Far Hills, and Peapack-Gladstone...
.
Notable residents
Notable current and former residents of Bernards Township include:- Patricia Lee GauchPatricia Lee GauchPatricia Lee Gauch is an author who has written over 30 works of children's literature. In 1993, Gauch was inducted into the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame. She has been a resident of the Basking Ridge section of Bernards Township, New Jersey...
(born 1934), author of over 30 works of children's literatureChildren's literatureChildren's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
who was inducted into the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame in 1993. - Page McConnellPage McConnellPage Samuel McConnell is an American multi-instrumentalist most noted for his work as a songwriter and keyboardist with the American rock band Phish....
(born 1963), keyboardist best known for his work with PhishPhishPhish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, and exploration of music across genres. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 , the band's four members – Trey Anastasio , Mike Gordon , Jon Fishman , and Page McConnell Phish is an American rock band...
. - Robert E. Mulcahy IIIRobert E. Mulcahy IIIRobert Edward Mulcahy III was the director of athletics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.-Biography:Mulcahy attended Millburn High School in Millburn, New Jersey, and graduated from Villanova University in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts in History...
, athletic director at Rutgers UniversityRutgers UniversityRutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
. - Samuel Lewis Southard (1787–1842), served as U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Navy, and the 10th Governor of New JerseyGovernor of New JerseyThe Office of the Governor of New Jersey is the executive branch for the U.S. state of New Jersey. The office of Governor is an elected position, for which elected officials serve four year terms. While individual politicians may serve as many terms as they can be elected to, Governors cannot be...
. - Mike TannenbaumMike TannenbaumMike Tannenbaum is a professional American football executive, currently serving as the general manager for the New York Jets of the National Football League.-Cleveland Browns:...
(born 1969), general manager of the New York Jets. - Zip the PinheadZip the PinheadZip the Pinhead, born William Henry Johnson , was an American freak show performer famous for his oddly tapered head.- Early life :...
, famous turn-of-the-century sideshow performer, was born in Liberty Corner.
External links
- Bernards Township official web site
- Bernards Township School District
- Data for the Bernards Township School District, National Center for Education StatisticsNational Center for Education StatisticsThe National Center for Education Statistics is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance information in the United States...
- The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills
- Bernards Twp 250th Anniversary Celebration web site