The Early Years
Barrington Emerges
Barrington Becomes
a Borough
A Period of Optimism
A Period of Depression
The Early Years
1776-185O
Owing to natural increases and immigration, the population of Philadelphia, the chief market for South Jersey farmers, and always a substantial influence on the southern part of our state, quadrupled from 1800 to 1850 to 121,000. The increases in population represented sources of demand for a long list of products, including agricultural products. The consumer depended on farmers in the surrounding area to supply them with farm products. However, the population in the Barrington area probably stayed about twenty to thirty, the same as it was at the time of the Revolutionary War.
Farmers needed better roads to transport their products to markets in Philadelphia and elsewhere. Roads and bridges were neglected during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, as money was diverted to the war effort. Barrington farmers doubtless utilized Clement Bridge Road, Gloucester Pike, White Horse Pike, Haddon Avenue (via Haddonfield) and Warwick Road. The State Legislature in the early days of the nineteenth century set about improving some of those roads by incorporating private enterprises that would undertake the job of road building and maintenance. Those private businesses were given important privileges including permission to charge travelers "toll" for using the "turnpikes". Haddon Avenue (laid out in 1792) and the White Horse Pike (laid out in 1807) became such turnpikes.
The Kings Highway (1796), the Clements Bridge Road (1807) and Warwick Road remained toll free or public roads. The turnpike companies were responsible for rebuilding solid roads with crushed-stone surfaces, making them better highways than the public roads which, for the most part, remained dirt or gravel roads that were kept free of weeds. Still, during the first half of the nineteenth century Barrington farmers must have felt that they had reasonably good means for horse-and-wagon transport of their products to markets and for the purchase of farm and household necessities.
The principal point of reference for anyone coming to the Barrington vicinity was the intersection of White Horse Pike and Clement's Bridge Road, which, according to the 1847 Sidney Map of Ten Miles Round Philadelphia, was known as Union Grove. At that time most of Barrington was owned by the Willits family. Camden Road Return A-83 (1855) refers to the intersection as Cooper's Corner, and as recently as 1877 Benjamin D. Cooper lived in the northwest quadrant where the Magown family later took up residence.
The State Legislature approved the creation of Camden County out of Gloucester County in 1844, comprising five Gloucester County townships: Gloucester, Gloucester Township, Newton, Washington and Waterford.
Schools for educating the young in South Jersey, for two or three decades after 1776, were much the same as they had been in colonial times. For most rural youngsters, education was acquired inside the family. Some parents, who could afford the outlay, brought in tutors; others relied on churches and Friends Meetings to provide the necessary education. Often church schools later became pay academies where groups of pupils were more formally educated. By mid-nineteenth century more than twenty public schools had been built (outside the City of Camden) in what is now Camden County. Barrington had no such school. The nearest public schools were located in Haddonfield (built in 1809) and in Mt. Ephraim (built in 1825).
Notwithstanding the modest educational opportunities and facilities in mid-century pre-Barrington, Joel G. Clark and his brother James, as other farmers in the area, were nevertheless far better off than their grandparents. Their standard of living was much higher. Farm families were coming gradually to depend more and more on dealers and merchants in Philadelphia and other nearby population centers for field and household necessities that used to be made on the farms but which being replaced by manufactured articles.
During the many years the Clarks lived in Barrington there were several named Joel. Joel G. Clark was a person of some prominence in the middle of the nineteenth century. He served as a Lay Judge for the county in 1844 and was a state assemblyman in 1845.
The stand New Jersey should take on the issue of slavery and the issue of the union must have been discussed by the farmers. The women no doubt also discussed the wonderful things they could buy at the stores while the men discussed local and political matters. The people gathered in Haddonfield and Mount Ephraim to meet and shop, as traveling by then was no great hardship. So the issue of slavery and the Union could hardly have escaped their attention. There is no record of the opinions or attitudes of pre-Barrington residents on those matters. Since most of the farm families were Quakers, It can be strongly assumed that they were against slavery. It is known, however, that before the actual conflict between the North and the South had begun, many South Jerseyans held the view that the slavery question was a matter for each state to decide for itself. A number of South Jersey people, evidently believing as individuals in freedom for slaves, freed their own and helped some of them from the South to escape to the North through Snow Hill (Lawnside) which served as a "station" In the "underground railroad." Some homes in Barrington are said to have rooms to house slaves. There is no record of how pre-Barrington residents stood on the question of the Union. It is on record, however, that many Jerseyans felt the Union should be preserved through political negotiations with representatives of the South; but when war broke out they rallied enthusiastically to the support of the North. Whether any pre-Barrington men responded to the call of arms is not known.
Train Pulling into Barrington Station circa
1914
First Post Office at 111 Clements Bridge Road
Luke Page's General Store at the Corner of
Reading and Barrington Avenues
Early Railroad Station and Trolley Car