Piscataway NJ Real Estate
Piscataway NJ Real Estate
Piscataway /pɪˈskætəweɪ/ is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township’s population was 56,044,[8][9][10] reflecting an increase of 5,562 (+11.0%) from the 50,482 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 3,393 (+7.2%) from the 47,089 counted in 1990.[18]
The name Piscataway may be derived from the area’s original Native American residents, transplants from near the Piscataqua River defining the coastal border between New Hampshire and Maine, whose name derives from peske (branch) and tegwe (tidal river),[19] or alternatively from pisgeu (meaning “dark night”) and awa (“Place of”)[20] or from a Lenape language word meaning “Great Deer”[21] or from words meaning “place of dark night”.[22] The area was first settled in 1666 by Quakers and Baptists who had left the Puritan colony in New Hampshire.[21]
Piscataway Township was formed on December 18, 1666, and officially incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798, as part of the state’s initial group of 104 townships.[23] The community, the fifth-oldest municipality in New Jersey,[24] has grown from Native American territory, through a colonial period and is one of the links in the earliest settlement of the Atlantic Ocean seacoast that ultimately led to the formation of the United States. Over the years, portions of Piscataway were taken to form Raritan Township (March 17, 1870, now Edison), Dunellen (October 28, 1887), Middlesex (April 9, 1913) and South Plainfield (March 10, 1926).[23]
Piscataway has advanced educational and research facilities due to the presence of Rutgers University, whose main campus spills into the township. High Point Solutions Stadium, home field for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team, is in Piscataway.[25] Part of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is located in Piscataway as well. Piscataway NJ Real Estate
In 2008, Money magazine ranked Piscataway 23rd out of the top 100 places to live in America.[26][27] In 2014, the magazine ranked Piscataway 27th out of top 50 places to live in America.[28]
History
In 1666, the first appointed Governor of New Jersey, Philip Carteret, granted 12 new settlers from Massachusetts a 100 square mile lot of land that was later founded as the townships of Woodbridge and Piscataway.[29] After this original purchase, additional settlers from the Piscataqua River area of New Hampshire also moved to the area, bringing the name. Coming from a lumbering, shipbuilding and fishing background, these settlers, consisting of mostly Baptists and Quakers, were comfortable with their new surroundings, and looking forward to starting a new life away from political and religious persecution in the north. They were also enterprising and pioneering families who were already experienced in wilderness settlement. Before the original settlers, there were pioneer scouts who surveyed theses new lands and waterways. The town name of Piscataway came from these early pioneers who originally came from the town of Piscataqua. During the original land purchase, the pioneers had signed 12 Articles of Agreement with Governor Carteret, which served as the legal basis for the government of Piscataway and Woodbridge and which shaped the democratic development of self-government. In short, these articles were mainly designed to provide liberty and land ownership for new families and to allow them to establish their own government representatives and religious freedoms. Piscataway NJ Real Estate.
After a few line and boundary changes, Piscataway and its out plantations were reported to total 40,000 acres, with 66 square miles of land in 1685. The Lenni Lenape Indians were natives to the entire Piscataway area, but were quietly displaced to smaller areas as settler numbers increased. The Indians had established defined trails that the settlers used to travel through the wilderness area and branch out to new lands. Over time, many of these primitive trails became the main routes of travel from town to town and still exist today. The trails along the Raritan River were named after a local Indian tribe called the Raritangs. Piscataway Township is the fifth oldest town in New Jersey and among the fifty oldest towns in the United States. Piscataway NJ Real Estate.
On February 8, 1777 a running battle took place between approximately 2,000 British and Hessian troops under the command of British General Charles Lord Cornwallis and the local patriot militia led by Colonel Charles Scott and a separate militia commanded by Brigadier General Nataniel Warner.