Little Egg Harbor Colonial History

Little Egg Harbor Colonial History. . , In 1609 - 1616, Dutch Captains Hudson, May and Hendricksen explored the coast and called this area "Eyre Haven" (Egg Harbor) reflecting the prolific bird population., The English took control of "New Netherland" from the Dutch in 1664 and, in 1676, divided "Nova Caesarea" (New Jersey) into East and West Jersey Provinces with the boundary line beginning at Little Egg Harbor., The first European purchase of Lenape land in what is now Ocean County was at Little Egg Harbor by Henry Jacobs Falkinburg in 1674. Falkinburg, Edward and Mordecai Andrews, among others, founded the county's first settlement, centered at today's Tuckerton, by 1698. Most early settlers were Quakers who established the Egg Harbor Friends Meeting here in 1702, built their first Meeting House in 1709 , the county's first church , and are interred in its graveyard. A portion of the nearby Andrews Homestead is said to be the oldest standing structure in Ocean County., Little Egg Harbor grew from initial farming, fur trading, fishing and whaling to include gristmills, sawmills, shipbuilding, salt production, and significant commercial trade, particularly of lumber and shellfish, to major American cities and abroad.