MORRIS County, NJ

Morris County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey, about west of New York City. According to the 2020 census, the county's population was enumerated at 509,285, an increase of 17,009 (3.5%) from the 492,276 counted at the 2010 Census, making it the tenth-most populous county in New Jersey. Morris County is part of the New York metropolitan area and is divided into 39 municipalities, with many commuter towns but no large cities. Its county seat is Morristown, in the southeast. The most populous place was Parsippany-Troy Hills Township, with 53,238 residents at the time of the 2010 Census, while Rockaway Township covered , the largest total area of any municipality.

In 2015, the county had a per capita personal income of $86,582, the highest in New Jersey and ranked 24th of 3,113 counties in the United States. Morris County, as of the 2000 Census, was the sixth-wealthiest county in the United States by median household income at $77,340 (second in New Jersey behind Hunterdon County at $79,888), sixth in median family income at $89,773 (third in New Jersey behind Hunterdon County at $91,050 and Somerset County at $90,605) and ranked tenth by per capita income at $36,964 (second in New Jersey behind Somerset County at $37,970).

The Bureau of Economic Analysis ranked the county as having the 16th-highest per capita income of all 3,113 counties in the United States (and the second highest in New Jersey) as of 2009. The county ranked third in the New York metropolitan area in terms of median income. Morris County was recently ranked number 2 of 21 NJ counties as one of the healthiest counties in New Jersey, according to an annual report by County Health Rankings and Roadmaps.

History

Etymology

Morris County was named after Colonel Lewis Morris, governor of New Jersey in 1738-39, the year the county was named.

Paleo Indians and Native Americans

The Wisconsin Glacier covered the northern section of Morris County from about 23,000 B.C. to 13,000 B.C.

After the Wisconsin Glacier melted around 13,000 B.C., Paleo Indians moved into the area from the south in search of big and small game as well as plants. The area was first tundra with grasses growing. Rabbits and fox moved into the area from the south.

Around the year 1000, the area of Morris County was inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans prior to the arrival of European settlers. They came from the Mississippi River area. They lived along the rivers and hunted game, fished, collected plants and nuts.

Dutch and English colonization

Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River area in 1609, and later the Dutch did surveys of the area.

From 1611 to 1614, the Dutch established the colony of New Netherland, which claimed territory between the 40th and 45th parallel north, a zone which included northern New Jersey. Dutch forts were established along the Hudson River beginning in 1613. As the years went by, more forts were established to trade with Native Americans.

The Native Americans traded furs and food with the Dutch for various goods. In return the Dutch gave the Native Americans metal pots, knives, guns, axes, and blankets. Trading with the Native Americans occurred until 1643 when a series of wars broke out between the Dutch and Native Americans.

There were hostile relations between the Dutch and Native Americans between 1643 and 1660. This prevented colonization by the Dutch of the Morris County region which was technically included in their claimed "New Netherland".

On August 27, 1664, three English ships approached Fort Amsterdam and the fort was surrendered to the English. The English now controlled New Netherland and Morris County was now under control of the colony of New York. Relations with the Native Americans improved for a while.

There was a war with the Dutch ten years later. The Dutch re-took control of New Amsterdam but after a year returned it to the English. Relations with the Native Americans and English improved for a while.

European settlements began in the early 18th century while the area was known as Hunterdon County. Native Americans were still in the area at that time. Land was purchased from the Native Americans for various things such as blankets, shirts, rum, guns, knives, pots and gunpowder. European colonization occurred along the Atlantic coast and moved inland.

The first European settlement in the area today known as Morris County occurred in Pompton Plains by the Dutch in 1695. From 1710 to 1730, various iron mines and forges were established. The first was in Whippany in 1710 and then in Succasunna in 1713.

By 1750, nearly all Native Americans had left New Jersey. This was due to land purchases from the Native Americans, diseases that the Native Americans contracted from Europeans, and due to starvation from the Little Ice Age, during which Native American corn crops failed and rivers froze, preventing fishing. Snow storms sent game into semi-hibernation or made them difficult to find. Nut crops such as oak, hickory, beech, walnut, chestnut and butternut failed some years due to late frosts in spring. Many of the Morris County Native Americans went to eastern Canada and others went to the Ohio Valley. The Walking Purchase in September 1737, prevented Native Americans from going to eastern Pennsylvania. At that time, European settlement grew swiftly as there was now land to be farmed and settled.

Morris County was originally part of Burlington County which had been established in 1694. It then became part of Hunterdon County, which separated from Burlington County in 1714.

Morris County was created on March 15, 1739, from portions of Hunterdon County. The county was named for the Governor of the Province of New Jersey, Colonel Lewis Morris. In later years Sussex County (on June 8, 1753) and, after the revolution, Warren County (on November 20, 1824, from portions of Sussex County) were carved out of what had been the original area of Morris County under English rule.

The county was the site of the winter camp of the Continental Army after the Battles of Trenton and Princeton during the winter of 1777, as well as another winter camp at Jockey Hollow during an extremely cold winter of 1779–80.

In the 1880s, Dover was the centre of iron ore mining with the 132 mines producing 700,000 tons of ore annually. The mines were mostly worked by Cornish miners, with the bulk of the population in Dover and Port Oram of Cornish extraction. At that time the Cornish had kept their customs and dialect, were deeply religious and predominantly Methodists.

Geography

According to the 2010 Census, the county had a total area of , including of land (95.5%) and of water (4.5%).

The county rises in elevation and relief from east to west, with only the more developed eastern suburbs in the Passaic River valley being relatively level. The highest point is at above sea level on a mountain south of Pine Swamp in western Jefferson Township. The second-highest point is on a mountain just north of Riker Lake at . The lowest point is about in elevation, at Two Bridges, the confluence of the Passaic and Pompton rivers.

The county is drained by several rivers. The Rockaway River drains , of the northern section of the county. The Whippany River drains of the middle of the county. The South Branch of the Raritan River and the Black River drain the western area.

Most of the county's borders are rivers. The Pequannock River drains the northern boundary area. The Pompton River drains the eastern section. The Passaic River also drains the eastern border area. The western border is drained by the Musconetcong River.

There are several large lakes in Morris County; among them are Lake Hopatcong, Budd Lake, Lake Parsippany, and the Boonton Reservoir (also known as the Jersey City Reservoir).

Adjacent counties

Climate

Morris has a humid continental climate (Dfa/Dfb) and the hardiness zones are 6a and 6b.

Geology

Around 500 million years ago, a chain of volcanic islands shaped like an arc collided with proto North America. The islands rode over top of the North American plate. This created the highlands in western Morris County and the eastern section of Morris County.

Around 400 million years ago, a small continent long and narrow collided with proto North America. This created folding and faulting, as compression occurred. Then around 350 million years ago, the African plate collided with North America creating the folding and faulting in the Appalachians. But when the African plate pulled away from North America, an aborted rift valley was created. This half graben, starts east of Boonton and goes through the middle of Parsippany, south to Morristown, to the south end of Great Swamp. From Parsippany and the Boonton area the half graben goes east to the western side of Paterson, where there was another fault by the lava flows. East of the Ramapo Fault is where there is this aborted rift valley.

The Ramapo fault goes through the county on a northeast–southwest axis. The fault separates the Highlands from the Piedmont, also known as the Newark Basin. This is an active fault. The last major earthquake occurred in 1884, with a strength measured at 5.3 on the Richter scale.

Around 21,000 B.C., the Wisconsin Glacier covered about half of Morris County. The terminal moraine went from Hackettstown east to north of Budd Lake, east to Rockaway and Denville, then southeast to Morristown then south to the south end of Great Swamp. When the glacier melted around 13,000 B.C. the melt water created Glacial Lake Passaic. The lake extended from what is now Pompton Lakes through Parsippany south to the south end of Great Swamp. From Parsippany the lake went east to the lava flows of western Paterson. This lake was thirty miles long and ten miles wide (36 km by 12 km). The depth was about . When the Wisconsin glacier cover Morris County the ice sheet was about deep. Due to debris from the glacier, the lake was unable to drain through the Watchung Mountains near Short Hills. Instead, it drained through Moggy Hollow at the southwestern end of the lake. But when the glacier melted and receded to the New York State line, the lake drained though the Little Falls area, as this was lower in elevation than Moggy Hollow. And thus the Passaic River formed.

The swamps of the Great Piece Meadows, Hatfield Swamp, Troy Meadows, Lee Meadows and Great Swamp were all under the Lake Passaic until it drained, and then these areas were created.

National protected areas

Demographics

2020 Census

As of the Census of 2020, the city had 509,285 people, 184,885 households, and 129,707 families. The population density was . There were 197,722 housing units at an average density of . The county's racial makeup was 67.0% White, 3.06% African American, 0.07% Native American, 11.3% Asian, and 3.0% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race accounted for 15.05% of the population.

Of the 184,885 households, of which 38.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.3% were married couples living together, 22.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 13.5% had a male householder with no wife present and 29.8% were non-families. 28.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.17.

About 21.4% of the county's population was under age 18, 8.5% was from age 18 to 24, 35.9% was from age 15 to 44, and 17.5% was age 65 or older. The median age was 43.3 years. The gender makeup of the city was 49.2% male and 50.8% female. For every 100 females, there were 96.9 males.

The city's median household income was $116,283, and the median family income was $141,633. About 5.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.1% of those under age 18 and 5.6% of those age 65 or over.

2010 Census

Housing expense

thumb|left|200 px|An early 1900s

thumb|left|200 px|A

By national standards, housing is expensive in Morris County. In 2018, the median house price in Morris County was $469,900, the 2nd highest in the state behind Bergen County (with a median home price of $476,200).

In the Forbes magazine 2012 ranking of the Most Expensive ZIP Codes in the United States, New Vernon (located within Harding Township) was ranked as the 32nd most expensive in the country, with a median home sale price of $2,701,885. There were a total of 6 Morris county zip codes listed in the top 500, which were Mountain Lakes (No. 288; $909,474), Mendham (includes both Mendham Borough and Mendham Township) (No. 356; $800,672), Chatham (includes both Chatham Borough and Chatham Township) (No. 375; $776,703), Florham Park (No. 440; $675,107), and Kinnelon (No. 462; $630,414).

In the magazine's 2006 listing, New Vernon (Harding Township) was ranked as the 23rd most expensive in the country, with its median home sale price in 2005 of $1,596,587 ranking as the state's 2nd highest behind Alpine located Bergen County. In all, 5 Morris County zip codes were represented on the list in addition to New Vernon, including Mendham (includes both Mendham Borough and Mendham Township) (ranked No. 209; median sale price of $835,000), Mountain Lakes (No. 217; $826,250), Green Village (located within portions of both Harding Township and Chatham Township) (No. 282; $777,465), and Chester (includes both Chester Borough and Chester Township) (No. 288; $775,000).

Government

Morris County is governed by a seven-member Board of County Commissioners, who are elected at-large to three-year terms on a staggered basis, with two or three seats up for election each year. The Commissioner Board sets policies for the operation of six super-departments, more than 30 divisions plus authorities, commissions, boards and study committees. Actual day-to-day operation of departments is supervised by County Administrator, John Bonanni. In 2016, freeholders were paid $24,375 and the freeholder director was paid an annual salary of $25,350.

, Morris County's Commissioners are:

Former freeholders

Former county freeholders include:

Other officers

Pursuant to Article VII Section II of the New Jersey State Constitution, each county in New Jersey is required to have three elected administrative officials known as "constitutional officers". These officers are the County Clerk and County Surrogate (both elected for five-year terms of office) and the County Sheriff (elected for a three-year term). Morris County's constitutional officers are:

The Acting County Prosecutor is Robert J. Carroll of Roseland, who was sworn into the position in October 2020 following the retirement of Frederic M. Knapp.

The Morris Automated Information Network, which supplies Internet service to area libraries, turned down $10,000 per year in federal funding, starting in 2004. Acceptance of the grants would have required the network to install anti-porn content filters to comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act. As these filters excluded legitimate information—such as pages with the word "breast" in online searches regarding "breast cancer"—the network declined to accept these grants.

Another organization having the power to affect the county budget without county governmental control is the Morris County Board of Taxation, (also called the Morris County Tax Board). "[T]he freeholders, and county government in general, do not have control over tax board spending. ... [T]he tax board is an entity of state government, even though it submits expense vouchers to county government."

Morris County is a part of Vicinage 10 of the New Jersey Superior Court (along with Sussex County), which is seated at the Morris County Courthouse in Morristown; the Assignment Judge for Vicinage 10 is Stuart A. Minkowitz. Law enforcement at the county level includes the Morris County Park Police and the Morris County Sheriff. The County law enforcement organization includes the Morris County Prosecutor's Office.

Federal Representation

The 7th and 11th Congressional Districts cover the county.

State Representatives

The 39 municipalities of Morris County are represented by six separate legislative districts.

Politics

Though New Jersey is mainly a Democratic state, Morris County has generally leaned towards the Republican Party. The GOP has carried the county in all but three presidential elections since 1896: in 1912, 1964, and 2020. Republicans hold every countywide elected office and the majority of the county's seats in the state legislature. The last Democrat to win a county office was Freeholder Douglas Romaine in 1973.

As of January 1, 2021, there were a total of 392,471 registered voters in Morris County, of which 134,408 (34.2%) were registered as Republicans, 113,629 (29%) were registered as Democrats, and 140,623 (35.8%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 3,811 (1%) voters registered to other parties.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton came closer than any Democrat to carrying the county since Lyndon Johnson's win in 1964, finishing just 4.2 percent behind Donald Trump.

In 2020, Joe Biden accomplished that feat, carrying Morris County by 4.2 percent. Also in 2020, Cory Booker became the first Democrat to win Morris County in a Senate election since Bill Bradley in 1984.

In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 70% of the vote here (98,888 ballots cast), ahead of Democrat Barbara Buono with 28.2% (39,824 votes), and other candidates with 1.8% (2,560 votes), among the 143,745 ballots cast by the county's 324,817 registered voters, yielding a 44.25% turnout. In the 2017 gubernatorial election, Republican Kim Guadagno received 53.08% of the vote (77,203 ballots cast), head of Democrat Phil Murphy with 45.04% (65,507 votes), and other candidates with 1.88% (2,742 votes).

Taxation

Based on IRS data for the 2004 tax year, Morris County had the tenth-highest average federal income tax liability per return in the country. Average tax liability was $15,296, representing 16.3% of Adjusted Gross Income. Mountain Lakes ranked among the highest annual property tax bills in New Jersey, and highest in Morris County, in 2018 of $20,471, compared to a statewide average of $8,767.

Economy

thumb|200px|right|"Smart Growth" in

Morris County has the third-highest median household income in the United States ($77,340).

Based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Morris County had a gross domestic product (GDP) of $52.5 billion in 2018, which was ranked 3rd in the state behind Bergen and Middlesex counties and represented an increase of 1.7% from the previous year.

Business

Morris County is home to 33 Fortune 500 businesses that have headquarters, offices or a major facility in Morris County. These include AT&T, Honeywell, Colgate-Palmolive, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, ExxonMobil, Novartis, BASF, Verizon, and Bayer, among others. Major industries include finance, insurance, real estate, pharmaceuticals, health services, research and development, and technology. There are set aside for 28 county parks. Four county golf courses and 16 public and private courses are in Morris.

Major employers in the county include:

Education

As of 2018, 56.1 percent of Morris County residents were college graduates, the 2nd highest percentage in the state behind neighboring Somerset County with 58.0 percent.

The Florham Park–Madison–Convent Station (Morris Township) area is also the home of three universities.

Arts and culture

Sports

The United States Equestrian Team, the international equestrian team for the United States, was founded in 1950 at the Coates estate on van Beuren Road in Morristown.

Morristown has a cricketing club, the first in North America.

The Mennen Arena in Morris Township, facilitated by The Morris County Park Commission, hosts various sporting events from ice hockey, figure skating, indoor football and outdoor rugby, to professional wrestling, MMA and Shrine Circus.

Parks

The County boasts 13,000 acres that encompass 28 parks making it the largest county park system in New Jersey based on acreage. Notably, Morristown National Historical Park became the country's first National Historical Park in 1933.

Other points of interest

Municipalities

thumb|right|400px|Indexed map of Morris County municipalities (click to see index key)

{"type": "ExternalData","service": "geoshape","properties": {"fill": "#07c63e"},"query": "SELECT ?id ?idLabel (CONCAT(, SUBSTR(STR(?link), 31 , 500 ), , ?idLabel, '') AS ?title) WHERE { ?id (wdt:P31/(wdt:P279*)) wd:Q54115138; wdt:P131 wd:Q498163. ?link schema:about ?id; schema:isPartOf . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language 'en'. } OPTIONAL { ?id wdt:P402 ?OSM_relation_ID. } }"}

Municipalities in Morris County (with 2010 Census data for population, housing units and area) are:

Transportation

Roads and highways

, the county had a total of of roadways, of which are maintained by the local municipality, by Morris County and by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Morris County is served by several major roadways including:

Public transportation

NJ Transit also provides rail service with Morris County via its Morris & Essex Lines and Montclair-Boonton Line to Hoboken Terminal and to New York City via its Midtown Direct service. Rail stations are located in the county providing electrified train service seven days a week from: Chatham, Madison, Convent Station, Morristown, Morris Plains, Denville, and Dover on NJ Transit's Morris & Essex Lines; electrified train service seven days a week from Gillette, Millington and Stirling on the Gladstone Branch; and diesel train service (weekdays only) from Mount Arlington, Lake Hopatcong, Netcong, Mount Olive, Mountain Lakes, Boonton, Towaco (Montville) and Lincoln Park.

Bus transportation is also offered by several carriers including Lakeland Bus Company and NJ Transit.

Air

Morristown Municipal Airport is a general aviation reliever airport located east of downtown Morristown. Operated by DM Airports, Ltd, it is in the Whippany section of Hanover Township.

Local media

Climate and weather

In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Morristown have ranged from a low of in January to a high of in July, although a record low of was recorded in February 1934 and a record high of was recorded in August 2001. Average monthly precipitation ranged from in February to in September.