Editing Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey (section)

== History ==
The first residents of what would become Egg Harbor Township were the [[Lenape|Lenni Lenape]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], who would spend their summers on the elevated land around the cedar swamp that is now Bargaintown Lake, as well as along the banks of Patcong Creek, where they made use of the abundant fish, shellfish, wild berries, and bird's eggs in the area and collected shells that could be carved to make [[wampum]].<ref>Mason, Beryl D. [http://www.eht.com/history/Sketches/bargaintown/index.htm "Bargaintown"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100425064302/http://www.eht.com/history/Sketches/bargaintown/index.htm |date=2010-04-25 }}, ''Sketches of Egg Harbor Township'', 1964, by the Egg Harbor Township Terecentenary Publications Committee.</ref>

Great Egg Harbor was part of [[Gloucester County, New Jersey|Gloucester County]], [[West Jersey]]. On May 17, 1694 a law was passed that made this official, reading:

{{Blockquote|text=And  forasmuch  as there  are  some  families  settled  upon  Egg  Harbour, and  of right  ought  to  be  under  some  jurisdiction. ''Be  it  enacted''  by the authority  aforesaid, that  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  Egg Harbour, shall be  and  belong  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Gloucester county, to  all  intents  and purposes, till  such  time  as they  shall  be  capable, by  a  copetent {{sic}} number  of  inhabitants, to  be  erected  into  a  county, any  former  act  to  the  contrary notwithstanding.|title=''An  Act  for  regulating  Bounds  of  Cape May  County, and  for  Egg  Harbour Inhabitants  to  belong  to  Gloucester County''<ref name=ActsAndProceedings>{{cite book|editor1=Aaron Leaming|editor2=Jacob Spicer|chapter=Acts and Proceedings of the Legislature of West-Jersey|title=The grants, concessions, and original constitutions of the province of New-Jersey|publisher=Honeyman and Co.|location=[[Somerville, NJ]]|year=1881|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/grantsconcession00newj/page/534/mode/2up|pages=534–535}}</ref>|source=|author=}}

The same Act set the legal boundaries of Gloucester County from the [[Delaware River]], along the [[Burlington County, New Jersey|Burlington County]] line to the sea and back up the [[Great Egg Harbor River]] to the Delaware River.<ref name="ActsAndProceedings" /> At that time Great Egg Harbor encompassed all of present-day Atlantic County. In 1837, Atlantic County was set apart from Gloucester County and the Townships were Egg Harbor, [[Galloway Township, New Jersey|Galloway]], [[Hamilton Township, Atlantic County, New Jersey|Hamilton]] and [[Weymouth Township, New Jersey|Weymouth]].<ref>Staff. [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB29CB363C4CB16&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM "Celebrating A County's Birth With A Trip Through Time"], ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]'', May 11, 1987. Accessed May 3, 2012. "Their destination: a Lenape River tavern on Sugar Hill, where on May 10, 1837, nine founding freeholders met to organize Atlantic County.... At its conception, Atlantic County had four townships - Egg Harbor, Hamilton, Galloway and Weymouth - and 8164 people"</ref>

Since 1837, ten municipalities have separated from the original Egg Harbor Township, including [[Atlantic City, New Jersey|Atlantic City]] (1854), [[Absecon, New Jersey|Absecon]] (1872), South Atlantic City (1885; now [[Margate City, New Jersey|Margate City]]), [[Somers Point, New Jersey|Somers Point]] (1886), [[Pleasantville, New Jersey|Pleasantville]] (1888), [[Linwood, New Jersey|Linwood]] (1889), [[Longport, New Jersey|Longport]] (1898), [[Brigantine, New Jersey|Brigantine]] (1903), [[Ventnor City, New Jersey|Ventnor City]] (1903) and [[Northfield, New Jersey|Northfield]] (1905).<ref name=Story/>

In 2017, Egg Harbor township joined [[Bellmawr, New Jersey|Bellmawr]], [[Cranbury, New Jersey|Cranbury]], [[Montclair, New Jersey|Montclair]], and [[Woodbridge Township, New Jersey|Woodbridge Township]] as one of the first five municipalities in New Jersey to authorize [[Cannabis in New Jersey|medical cannabis]] dispensaries.<ref>Guion, Payton. [http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/marijuana_legalization_would_mean_tough_choices_fo.html#incart_most-commented_hudson_article "Marijuana legalization would force tough choice for N.J. towns"], NJ Advance Media for [[NJ.com]], November 15, 2017. Accessed November 15, 2017. "NJ Advance Media reached out to mayors in all five towns that have medical dispensaries: Bellmawr, Cranbury, Egg Harbor, Montclair and Woodbridge."</ref>