Richard and Kathleen Pettys
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To designate the spot - which is now Osborn's Island in Brielle - the Indians named the river "Manatahsquawhan." This is a combination of the Indian words "manatah" for island, "squaw" for wide and "han" for stream. Translated, it meant "Stream of the Island of Wives."
Over the years the river's name was shortened to Manasquan by white settlers, in turn, a nearby Village got its name from the river.
The first white men settled in the local area around 1665, when Englishmen bought much of the land from the Indians. The new settlers were a hardy breed who hacked small farms out of the wilderness and lived in their log cabins.
During the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 the area was deeply involved in history-making events. British soldiers raided the coast and frigates attacked the Colonial ships which sailed back and forth to New York out of the Manasquan River.
In 1825 a tavern owner named Timothy Bloomfield started a settlement and named it Squan Village. Others sometimes called it Crab Town. But whatever the name, the following years were prosperous. Stores and homes sprouted. More than a score of merchants ships carried wood, charcoal and produce to other ports from nearby Union Landing, now Brielle. In time, the area supported many shipyards and one large iron foundry.
Probably the most important event in those early years was the coming of the railroad in 1872. It brought better mail service and more efficient transportation.
In those days the settlement was part of Shrewsbury Township, which originally took in a major part of Monmouth and Ocean Counties.
By the time residents took the river's name for their village in 1877, Manasquan had become a section of Wall Township, which had broken away from Shrewsbury Township.
In 1887 residents voted to incorportate the village as a borough. The following year Edward S. VanLeer was elected the first mayor.
In ensuing years the borough's major industry - the summer resort business - began to take shape. It started with two hotels the Osborn House and the Squan House, on opposite corners of the intersection of South and Main streets. Meanwhile, the small boarding house business was born when residents took paying summer guest into their homes.
The resort trade is now a million-dollar business. The borough's population swells to 10,000 during the summer season, with most of the activity centered around the mile-long beach.
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