Name:____________________________
Teacher’s Resource: Cumberland County History Scramble
This sequencing activity teaches students about key dates in Cumberland County’s history by utilizing text to set the
dates in their correct order.
Wild About Cumberland Objective: Sense of Place, Cumberland County History
Duration: 30 minutes
Skills: Reading Comprehension, Making Inferences, Sequencing, Drawing Conclusions
Common Core Standards:
R.RIT.1, 4.RIT.4, 4.RIT.5
Name:____________________________
Cumberland County History Scramble: Read the historic information below and put the text blocks in order from
oldest to newest by numbering the lines next to the text. Set Cumberland County’s history back in order!
_____ In 1799, the first glassmaking enterprise in Cumberland County is opened in Port Elizabeth by James Lee. Lee’s
success allowed him to open a second business in Millville in 1806.
_____ The railroad lines connect to Bivalve in 1876. This causes a major shift in the way oysters are transported, and
the majority of the oysters are moved by railcar rather than boats, causing a boom in the oyster industry.
_____ In 1748, Salem County is divided and Cumberland County officially forms with Cohansey Bridge (Bridgeton)
chosen as the first county seat. Six townships were recognized: Greenwich, Cohansey, Hopewell, Stow Creek,
Maurice River and Deerfield.
_____ According to the 2010 Census, Cumberland County is home to 156,898 people. The county has a total area of
677.62 square miles, of which 483.70 square miles is land and 193.92 square miles is water.
_____ Prior to the American Revolution, Patriot sentiment predominated in Cumberland County. By December of 1774
Greenwich was ready for its own "Tea Party" as a reaction to new British taxes. Boxes of tea came in by ship
and were stored in the town for shipment to Philadelphia. The boxes were seized and burned on Market Square
by a group of townspeople in disguise. This was the only act of violence against British authority in New Jersey
leading up to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.
_____ Permanent European settlement in what is now called Cumberland County dates back to 1675 when John
Fenwick purchased his tenth of West New Jersey from Lord John Berkeley. Fenwick established the town of
Salem that same year, and in his will in 1683 he called for a second town to be built on the Cohansey Creek.
This Community was eventually named Greenwich.
_____ During the Revolutionary War, New Jersey was a site of several key events. The Battle of Fort Lee and the
Battle of Trenton are just two of the important battles to take place in the state during the war. One battle
took place right here in Cumberland County in 1778. The skirmish at Dallas’s Landing was fought along the
Maurice River very close to Port Norris and was won by the New Jersey Militia as a group of British loyalists
were attempting to leave to join up with the British forces in New York.
_____ At the time of the first European settlements in the 1640’s, the area that is now Cumberland County was
inhabited by a small number of Native Americans from the Lenni Lenape tribe who migrated from place to
place. Archaeological finds suggest that they have lived in the area for nearly 10,000 years. Their names
remain in the Manumuskin and Menantico Creeks as well as many other places throughout the state. There is
no record of conflict between the Native Americans and Europeans here, but by 1700 many of the Lenni
Lenape had left the area.
_____ The railroad companies construct shipping sheds to help manage the movement of oysters from the boats to
railroad cars in Bivalve in 1904. It takes 30 of these sheds to support the oystering industry growing there. The
surviving sheds are one of 26 sites in Cumberland County recognized on the National Register of Historic
Places. Sheds are also constructed in Greenwich and in Maurice River around this time.