In 1968, the Jackson Township Police Department had grown to 18 members to provide law enforcement protection for the township’s growing population. Today, there are more than 80 men and women serving in the Police Department. PHOTOS COURTESY OF BORDEN APPLEGATE Fifty years ago, Dr. Vincent DeMuro was the only physician in Jackson Township.
Having set up his first practice in 1964, DeMuro quickly became an integral part of a township primarily known at the time for its cranberry bogs and chicken farms, rather than the roller coasters and marching bands of today.
“I was always told, even when I was in school, that I was going to get paid off of chickens and eggs [in Jackson],” DeMuro said.
At that time, DeMuro lived and worked in a Jackson that had only one traffic light. The school district was much smaller and there was a small police force protecting the community.
And while the township was little more than a group of villages such as Cassville, Prospertown and Websville operating under the Jackson moniker, for the people living there, it was an idyllic slice of Americana that spanned 104 square miles.
Sprawling acres of corn crops like those along County Line Road at Cook Farm were commonplace as recently as 1981 in Jackson. “Growing up, my life was like Huckleberry Finn,” resident Borden Applegate said. “We would ride our bicycles, build tree huts, go swimming in the lake … and we’d be gone from morning until night.”
For people like Applegate and Councilman Scott Martin, who moved to Jackson with his family in 1971 at the age of 4, growing up in the township during that time was a much simpler experience. “Everybody knew everybody, and there was such a small-town feel,” Martin said. “In the weekends, you were usually at the baseball field, soccer field or softball field, depending on what season you were at.” According to Christa McAuliffe Middle School teacher Victoria O’Donnell, that “small-town feel” came largely from residents’ deep-rooted connection to the original villages that made up Jackson in its early days.
Over the years, a number of celebrities have visited Jackson. Actress Elizabeth Taylor, pictured with 2-year-old resident John Adam, visited the now shuttered Plain Jane’s Bar during a 1987 fundraiser for AIDS research. “I think the uniqueness, the street names, the family names … there’s definitely a sense of pride in our town,” O’Donnell said. “You can tell who knows our history and who’s remained here for years if you, say, go down to ‘Willy’s Corner’ and they know what you’re talking about.”
As in many American towns, baseball was a major pastime. Here, a group of Jackson men share a candid team photo. PHOTO COURTESY OF BORDEN APPLEGATE O’Donnell, who co-authored “Images of America: Jackson Township,” said that deep-seated village mentality goes all the way back to the township’s inception.
“When Jackson Township was established in 1844, people didn’t really refer to it as Jackson. They referred to it as the villages,” O’Donnell said. “When Amelia Earhart came to town, the article that was printed said she arrived in Cassville and went to Prospertown.”
By the 1960s and ’70s, however, a cultural shift within Jackson paved the way for today’s largely suburban layout and led to a boom in population that continues today.
“When the farmers started selling their land to developers in the early ’60s … a lot of people moved down to Jackson because you could buy a house for $18,000 on a quarter-acre of land [in the ’70s],” DeMuro said.
During summers, places like Applegate’s Lake were a popular location for kids and adults alike to cool off as far back as 1948, seen here. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Jackson’s population has grown just over nine-fold since 1960, from nearly 6,000 residents to an estimated 56,000.
Former Jackson Mayor Ray Shea, a land use attorney, said the boom in population stemmed from a number of external and internal factors.
“After World War II, Jackson was known as a relatively forested, agrarian economy,” Shea said. “That stopped when Jackson developed its own identity as a community where people could raise their families in safety with clean air, good schools and houses of worship.”
According to Shea, Jackson was largely an anomaly in the region, having been resistant to modern development for much of the beginning portion of the 20th century.
Yet it was that aversion to overdevelopment and modernization that Shea said gave Jackson its unique character.
“Over the last 40 years, Jackson has become a most attractive suburban setting, and one of the reasons for that is that — of the more than 30 towns in Ocean County — this community developed last … so it took advantage of the more advanced planning schemes, architectural designs and standards,” Shea said.
Having been involved in Jackson since the early 1970s, Shea pointed to the construction of Six Flags Great Adventure in 1974 as a major turning point for the township.
“I remember we had a devil of a time convincing the company that owned Six Flags at the time to use Jackson in the ads, because their position was that nobody knew where Jackson is,” Shea said. “Six Flags has done a great deal to put Jackson on the map.”
In addition to the opening of a major theme park, Shea said the “substantial development of senior and nonsenior communities” during the ’80s and ’90s also played a major role.
“[Jackson] was especially attractive to those that couldn’t afford Monmouth County, that kept coming south. The first town you hit coming south was Jackson.”
According to Shea, who served on the Township Committee from 1973-75 with a term as mayor in 1974, the average home in Jackson during that period cost about $50,000 to $100,000 less than homes in nearby communities to the north.
The development of Staten Island and portions of North Jersey also played a large factor in the population boom, Shea said.
“People began to understand that Jackson was a place that people wanted to move,” Shea said.
While Shea pointed to the 1970s as the starting point when Jackson began moving toward a more suburban style, Applegate contended that the population began growing in the early ’60s when housing developments like Edgewood Park, Robbins Estates and the Brookwoods were built.
“[The Brookwoods] were advertising and drawing in people from North Jersey. That made a difference and changed the township from a rural community to a bedroom community,” Applegate said.
Having served with the Police Department almost since its inception until his retirement in the 1990s, Applegate said an increase in police presence was almost directly proportionate to the township’s growth rate.
“There was only one police officer in Jackson in the 1950s until they put a second officer on in the late ’50s,” Applegate said. “We didn’t really have a lot to do until the population started increasing.”
Despite all of the development over the years, Shea said Jackson will never become the sprawling commercial community seen in nearby Howell or Toms River, due to the fact that there are only three developable, unprotected plots of land left in the township.
“Anybody who takes the time to do an inventory analysis of Jackson knows that Jackson will be forever green,” Shea said. “Jackson is never in danger of becoming urbanized to the point that it will lose its rustic, suburban nature.”
Looking toward the next 50 years, Martin said he is confident Jackson will continue down its current path, giving current residents a past they can remember just as fondly.
“When you look at all the opportunities that have evolved over time from the various growth and academic programs … I think Jackson has kept up with the times to make sure our kids don’t fall behind,” Martin said.
“I don’t think it’s better or worse. I just think we’ve done a great job keeping up with the times.”