Stillwater Township is a township located in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Kittatinny Valley, Stillwater is a rural farming community with a long history of dairy farming. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township’s population was 4,099.
Stillwater was settled in the eighteenth century by Palatine German immigrants who entered through the port of Philadelphia. In 1741, Casper Shafer, John George Wintermute (Windemuth), and their father-in-law Johan Peter Bernhardt settled along the Paulins Kill. For the next 50 years, the village of Stillwater was essentially German, centered on a union church shared by Lutheran and German Reformed (Calvinist) congregations. The German population assimilated by the early nineteenth century, but evidence of their settlement remains in the architecture of the grist mills, lime kilns, and stone houses located throughout the valley. Stillwater was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on December 27, 1824, from portions of Hardwick Township when Sussex County was divided in half by the legislature a few weeks earlier to create Warren County. Portions of the township were taken to form Fredon Township on February 24, 1904.
In 2008, New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Stillwater Township as its 40th best place to live in its annual rankings of the “Best Places To Live” in New Jersey.
The township was created on December 27, 1824, by an act passed by the New Jersey Legislature.
A prominent structure in the area’s history is the Shafer Grist Mill. Originally built by Casper Shafer in 1741, it was moved approximately a half mile to its present location in 1764. It was rebuilt in 1844 and powered by water from the Paulins Kill. Casper’s son, Nathan Armstrong Shafer lived in Whitehall Manor, which he built near what is now the center of the village. The gristmill operated commercially until 1955, making it one of the oldest, continuously operating, water-powered gristmills in the State of New Jersey. Aline Murray Kilmer, the widow of poet Joyce Kilmer, lived the last decade of her life at Whitehall, passing away there on October 1, 1941.
The Stillwater creamery was built in 1910. Borden, Inc. later took control of the creamery.
In the 1920s, the Paulinskill River was dammed to create Paulinskill Lake and many summer residences sprang up. These summer cottages have grown into what is now a year-round community.
The Presbyterian Church is the most prominent feature in Stillwater village. Opposite the church is the former Stillwater Academy, an old schoolhouse that is now home to the Stillwater Historical Museum. Stillwater was, and still is, primarily agricultural. The area is dotted with lime kilns, which used to burn lime to enrich the soil, but are now obsolete, becoming lost to history and the overgrowth of vegetation. An intact kiln still exists on Millbrook Road, a little more than two miles (3 km) from Stillwater village.
Roughly one-third of Stillwater Township’s area was ceded to create Fredon Township in 1904.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 28.385 square miles (73.515 km2), including 27.061 square miles (70.087 km2) of land and 1.324 square miles (3.428 km2) of water (4.66%).
The township borders the Sussex County municipalities of Fredon Township, Hampton Township and Walpack Township; and both Frelinghuysen Township and Hardwick Township in Warren County.
Crandon Lakes (with a 2010 Census population of 496 in Stillwater Township, out of a CDP total of 1,178) is an unincorporated communityand census-designated place (CDP) split between Hampton Township and Stillwater Township.
Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Catfish Pond, Duck Pond, Fairview Lake, Five Points, Lake Kathryn, Middleville, Mud Pond, Paulins Kill Lake, Quick Pond, Stillwater, Swartswood, Swartswood Lake and Wintermutes Foundry.
Stillwater is a small one-street village in the area that was first settled by Johan Peter Bernhardt and his two sons-in-law, John George Wintermute and Caspar Shafer. At the western terminus of end of Main Street where it meets County Route 521, the First Presbyterian Church of Stillwater is the dominant feature. As Main Street travels east, the Stillwater General Store (originally Garris’s General Store) (1876), “Whitehall” (built in 1785 by Abraham Shafer), Casper Shafer’s stonehouse (c. 1741), crossing the Paulins Kill near Shafer’s grist mill(1764, 1844) and miller’s house. An 1820 hostelry, the Stillwater Inn, recently was destroyed by fire. One half-mile (800 m) south of the Presbyterian church, is John George Wintermute’s stonehouse (1755), his son Peter’s stonehouse (1791). Located adjacent is Stillwater Cemetery—the site of the original Lutheran-Calvinist union church (1771-1838), the graves of the towns earliest settlers, and many eighteenth century ethnic German gravestones.
As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 4,099 people, 1,553 households, and 1,141.455 families residing in the township. The population density was 151.5 per square mile (58.5/km2). There were 1,930 housing units at an average density of 71.3 per square mile (27.5/km2). The racial makeup of the township was 97.07% (3,979) White, 0.66% (27) Black or African American, 0.05% (2) Native American, 0.71% (29) Asian, 0.02% (1) Pacific Islander, 0.20% (8) from other races, and 1.29% (53) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.20% (90) of the population.
Source: Wikipedia
