Today, Mickleton is considered roughly that section of East Greenwich Township south of the source of the Nehonsey Creek [also referred to as a brook and a stream].


Photograph from cover of
"Some Old Homes of Mickleton"

According to Elizabeth T. Scott in "East Greenwich Township Centennial--1881 to 1981," tradition says that at the entrance of Still Run with Homan's Creek was a point of land with a cluster of Native American wigwams. The occupants resided there for a long time and were peaceable. Native American darts of fine flint, and stone axes with the grooves worked around them had been found near the old "Carter's Farm" on Cedar Road.

On March 3, 1688 Nicholas Young, sawyer, late of Burlington, received 100 acres of land from Thomas Scholey of Ony-onickhon, West Jersey. This land surrounds the house at 622 Kings Highway. About 1696 Thomas Gardiner surveyed 600 acres on one of the northly branches of Homan's Creek south of Stephen Jones "Lynd" for Samuel Harrison, a mariner in Gloucester Town. This land surrounded the house at 828 Kings Highway.

In 1759 a survey of land to William Harrison was part of a previous survey of the West New Jersey Societies called Indian Town Tract. This land seems to be near the former home of Arthur Sherman, on Rattling Run Road.

Colonel Bodo Otto, Jr., a Revolutionary War physician under General George Washington lived here [the current Otto-Tonkin house]. A skirmish, called the Battle of Saunders Run took place near his home in Mickleton in 1778.

Mickleton was known as "Upper Greenwich" from about 1756 until 1868 when the Swedesboro Branch West Jersey Railroad was built. Railroad authorities objected to the name as there was another town named Greenwich nearby. One source says that after considerable discussion the railroad company named the station Mickleton in honor of the Mickle family. A local legend reports that the railroad men saw storekeeper S. Mickle Ogden standing by the construction and decided to call the town Mickleton.

NOTEWORTHY PLACES:
Solomon's Graveyard, the Friends Meeting House, and The Little Red School House, and Haines Pork Shop are located in Mickleton. Mickleton Park, dedicated to honor Laura Getsinger is also located here.

EARLY SETTLERS OF MICKLETON:
Samuel Mickle was a local resident said to be a very public spirited citizen. His ancestors came to America in the same year that William Penn arrived. The original Mickles were Archibald and Sarah Watts Mickle. They had been members of Lisbon Friends Meeting in Ireland. They emigrated to the United States in 1682. In 1697 they purchased 510 acres on the east bank of the Delaware, extending eastward to Coopers Creek. The original Friends Meeting House in "Upper Greenwich" [as Mickleton was called at that time] was about two miles below the site of the present one, and was called Solomon's Meeting after Solomon Lippincott on whose land the Friends first met. The current Friends Meetinghouse was built in 1799 on land donated by Samuel Mickle and Samuel Tompkin.

On March 3, 1798 Samuel Tonkin bought the house at 522 Kings Highway from the heirs of Bodo Otto. In 1799 he donated a half acre of land to the Friends for their meeting house. In 1808 he donated one acre and five perches to the Friends for The Little Red Schoolhouse ground. In June 1777 Samuel Tonkin manumitted four slaves to conform with Friends principles and then received into Friends membershp in July 1777.

In 1802 Joseph Wolf, wheelwright built two rooms and attic now at the left of the homestead on 160 Cedar Road. Joseph Wolf planted a large apple orchard and had a cider mill and distillery near the stream running along side the farm.

In 1822 George Craft bought 230 acres of land and about 1825 built the tenant house at 48 East Wolfert Station Road. This land included the 200 acres that had been surveyed to Stephen Jones about 1696. The hill on Kings Highway by this land was known for years as Craft's Hill. In 1847 George Craft Jr. bought 99 acres from Edward and Elizabeth Tonkin. In 1858 he had James C. Dawson Sr. build him a house at 398 Kings Highway. That house was later known as "Skyway Apartments" and was owned by Theodore and Helen Brown.

Greenwich Hall was built in 1874 on the corner of King's Highway and Cedar Road. William Mickle built the first store here in 1862 or 1863--where the bank is now located. It was destroyed by fire in 1875. Samuel Mickle's old store of 1859 was moved into the Greenwich Hall store in the fall of 1874 by S. Mickle Ogden (grandson of Samuel Mickle, and great-grandson of William Mickle).

Pioneers of the time included Joseph Allen, wheelwright 1876 followed by Alex Dean wheelwright; first blacksmith, Joseph Kircher, 1876; followed by Joseph Ley; William P. Haines, carpenter and builder; George Irvin, shoemaker in 1880. John Eglington established the cemetery association chartered in 1869. The grounds for the cemetery were laid out in 1872.

By 1883 a large portion of the land around the village of Mickleton was owned by Job Carter, George Craft, and heirs of William Mickle.

Mickleton's first public schoolhouse was a frame one built in 1877 at the corner of Kings Highway and Quaker Road. This was replaced in 1928 by the red brick school which now houses the East Greenwich Library. In 1971 the Jeffrey Clark elementary school was built on Quaker Road.

The house at 825 Kings Highway was part of 100 acres of land "where the dwelling house and grist mill stand," that was inherited by Harrison Wells in 1772 from his aunt, Priscilla Wells Harrison. (He was also the grandson of William Harrison). Unfortunately Harrison Wells was loyal to the British crown and on December 5, 1778 he was sentenced for high treason, but not executed. His property was confiscated and sold in 1779 to Lardner Clark. In 1780 John Daniels bought the property and ran the mill there until 1777 as a Captain of the 1st Batallion, Cumberland County Militia. He and John Honeyman, the spy, planned and aided materially in the capture of Hessians at Trenton. Captain Daniels' wife, Mary Newcomb Daniels, was the daughter of Brigadier General Silas Newcomb involved in the 1777 skirmish at Saunder's Run. In 1816 Joseph Owen, wheelwright, from Salem bought this property. He welded the first iron plowshare in New Jersey. The house and land stayed in the Owen family until 1910 when it was sold.

SOME OLD AND INTERESTING HOMES:
Among Mickleton's houses believed to have been built in the 18th century that are still standing today are: The back two stories of the house at 522 Kings Highway (Bodo Otto House) built c1725 for Joseph Young; the center part of the house at 348 Kings Highway built c1747 for Nicholas Justison/Justice; the house at 825 Kings Highway built c1746 for William Harrison; the north section of the house at 351 Kings Highway in the early 1700's for Samuel Harrison; the stone portion of the house at 715 Kings Highway built c1770 for Margaret Wells Albertson; the house at 55 Quaker Road built 1793 for Uriah Wilkins; the house at 44 East Tomlin Station Road built c1783 for Valentine & Sarah (Simson) Reynolds; the old part of the house at 751 Rattling Run Road believed to have been built c1793 for George Brown; and the Friends Meetinghouse at 413 Kings Highway built in 1799.

Elizabeth Gray Vining, a Quaker and former tutor of Crown Prince Akihito of Japan. She wrote the book, "Windows For the Crown Prince" in this house, while living at 402 Kings Highway in 1951-1952.

See Other Older Homes of Mickleton