Freehold, NJ
Freehold, New Jersey
Freehold Township, New Jersey From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Freehold Township, New Jersey Map of Freehold Township in Monmouth County. Inset: Location of Monmouth County highlighted in the State of New Jersey. Census Bureau map of Freehold Township, New Jersey 
Freehold was originally named Monmouth Courthouse. In 1714, John Reid, the first Surveyor General of East Jersey, wanted the county seat located in Freehold Township and thus sold the property to the Board of Chosen Freeholders at a bargain price, what may have been the deciding factor in Freehold’s competition withMiddletown and Shrewsbury for the site. In return for the heavily-discounted price, Reid placed a restrictive covenant in the deed that, should the property ever cease being used as a courthouse, ownership would revert back to the Reid family. Direct descendants of John Reid still reside in Freehold Township. Freehold also has a relatively forgotten but important place in the history of the bicycle. Cycling championArthur Augustus Zimmerman resided in the town during his racing career in the 1880s and 1890s, and from 1896–1899 operated the Zimmerman Bicycle Co.; the company’s bicycles were known as the “Zimmy.” Today, Freehold Borough is home to the Metz Bicycle Museum, where the only extant “Zimmy” can be seen. African Americans made important contributions to the history of the borough and the county from the Revolutionary Period (Colonel Tye) to the present day (FBHS guidance counselor Lillie Hendry). While the first African American official gained office in 2007 (Jaye Sims), Freehold was one of the centers of African American civil rights activity in New Jersey during the years leading up to the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1955.
First settled in 1650, Freehold is one of the original townships of Monmouth County. It has always been the county seat, and from 1715 to 1801 Freehold was simply called “Monmouth Courthouse”.
Freehold enjoys a past that is rich in American Revolution History. Visitors to Freehold can hike, horseback ride or picnic on the grounds of Monmouth Battlefield, the 18th century landscape of fields, woods and orchards where one of the largest battles of the Revolutionary War took place. In was here, on a scorching hot day, June 28, 1778, that George Washington attacked the British Troops who were at the time retreating from Philadelphia back to New York. Other famed participants of the Battle of Monmouth were Benedict Arnold, Alexander Hamilton, the Marquis de Lafayette and Molly Pitcher, who took over her husband’s cannon after he was killed by British gunfire.
