By MARY ALLSOPP
Mary Allsopp is a retired Brick school teacher and a volunteer at the Ocean County
Historical Society.
In the mid-1800s, Joel Haywood, a Methodist minister and former state assemblyman
from West Creek in what is now Eagleswood, believed that the citizens in the southern
part of Monmouth County — now Ocean County — were being treated unfairly by the county
Board of Freeholders.
Dominated by Democrats, the board seemed to favor the more affluent northern part
of the county. As a member of the Whig Party (soon to be succeeded by today’s
Republican Party), Haywood and Whig freeholders from lower Monmouth County wanted
more funds for public works and other expenses of their towns.
So in 1849, Haywood wrote a letter asking the state Legislature to make the
lower part of Monmouth a separate county. Based on his letter, the Assembly
passed legislation to create a county extending from the Manasquan Inlet to the
southern tip of Long Beach Island.
Introduced in the Senate by William G. Hooper, a friend of Haywood’s and a fellow
Whig, the bill passed by one vote. On Feb. 15, 1850, the governor signed the
charter creating Ocean County, New Jersey’s 20th county.
Toms River, the largest village in the area, was chosen to be the county seat.
Haywood had been elected to the Assembly in 1842, and in 1850, he was elected again
to the lower house to represent the new county.
In 1853, Haywood ran for governor and lost by a narrow margin. A founder of the
Ocean County Republican Party, he was a delegate to the Republicans’ first national
convention in 1856.
Haywood was born on Dec. 9, 1798, in West Creek.
Trained by his father to be a blacksmith, he preferred to read. Tall and lanky,
he was an eloquent speaker.
Haywood married Lydia Pharo in 1821 and they had eight children. After her death
in 1842, he married her niece, Mary Ann Pharo, with whom he had four daughters.
As a young man, Haywood volunteered to rescue shipwreck victims and to conduct
funerals for and bury those who did not survive. Appalled by the loss of life, he
joined with William Newell, a member of Congress, to secure support for legislation
to establish the Life Saving Service, which later became the Coast Guard.
He helped to build the West Creek Methodist Church, was a trustee of the church,
and served as its pastor for 40 years.
Haywood died on May 29, 1865, and is buried in West Creek Cemetery.
to the Ocean County History Page