Toms River is a township located on the Jersey Shore in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its mainland portion is also a census-designated place of the same name, which serves as the county seat of Ocean County.New Jersey County Map , New Jersey Department of State. Accessed December 22, 2022.Map of the Ocean County Complex , Ocean County, New Jersey. Accessed July 13, 2018. "The official County Seat is Toms River which is located in the municipality of Dover Township." Formerly known as the Township of Dover, voters in a 2006 referendum approved a change of the official name to the Township of Toms River, adopting the name of the largest unincorporated community within the township. The township is a bedroom suburb of New York City in the New York metropolitan area, and a regional commercial hub in central New Jersey.
As of the 2020 United States census, the township was the state's eighth-most-populous municipality,Table1. New Jersey Counties and Most Populous Cities and Townships: 2020 and 2010 Censuses , New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Accessed December 1, 2022. with a population of 95,438, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 4,199 (+4.6%) from the 2010 census count of 91,239, which had in turn reflected an increase of 1,533 (+1.7%) from the 89,706 counted in the 2000 census.Table 7. Population for the Counties and Municipalities in New Jersey: 1990, 2000 and 2010 , New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, February 2011. Accessed May 1, 2023.
Toms River is featured in various TV and news media, including MTV's Made and Jersey Shore (seasons 1, 3, and 5), HBO's Boardwalk Empire, and the original The Amityville Horror movie. In 1998, Toms River East Little League won the Little League World Series. The township has what is said to be the second-largest Halloween parade in the world.Michels, Chelsea. "Toms River fire company publicizes details of annual Halloween parade", Asbury Park Press, October 1, 2009. Accessed January 5, 2026, via Newspapers.com. "It might not be in the Guinness World Records but organizers for the township's annual parade claim it is the second largest of its kind."
In 2006, Toms River was ranked by Morgan Quitno Press as the 15th safest city in the United States, of 369 cities nationwide.Morgan Quitno 12th Annual Safest (and Most Dangerous) Cities: Top and Bottom 25 Cities Overall, Morgan Quitno Press, backed up by the Internet Archive as of January 4, 2006. Accessed November 26, 2014. Listed as Dover Township, NJ. In 2007, Toms River was again ranked as the 14th-safest city in the United States of 371 cities nationwide.13th Annual America's Safest (and Most Dangerous) Cities: Top and Bottom 25 Cities Overall, Morgan Quitno Press, backed up by the Internet Archive as of January 5, 2007. Accessed November 26, 2014. Listed as Dover, NJ.
History Founding and early history Much of the early history of the settlement of Toms River is obscured by conflicting stories. Various sources list the eponym of the township as either English captain William Tom,Hutchinson, Viola L. The Origin of New Jersey Place Names , New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed October 12, 2015.Gannett, Henry. The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, p. 302. United States Government Printing Office, 1905. Accessed October 12, 2015. or farmer and ferryman Thomas Luker. In 1992, as part of celebrations commemorating the township's 225th anniversary, official recognition was granted to the tradition that the "Tom" in "Toms River" was for Thomas Luker, who ran a ferry across Goose Creek (now the Toms River)."Toms River Community Profile" , Ocean County Library. Accessed May 26, 2017. "Most believed it was named for Thomas Luker, who came to the area around 1700 and married Princess Anne, daughter of the local Indian Chief. Only in 1992, with the dedication of a small footbridge in Huddy Park to his memory, was Thomas Luker officially recognized as the source of the 'Tom' in Toms River. Over 40 of Luker's direct descendants and their families attended the ceremony where Ocean County Historian Pauline Miller laid to rest the other stories." During the 19th century, Toms River became a center for shipbuilding, whaling, fishing, and iron and lumber production. The settlement and the river were usually spelled "Tom's River" in its early days, though its current spelling has been standard since the middle of the 19th century.
Located in the southern section of the Shrewsbury Township, a royal charter was granted on March 1, 1768, and Dover Township was formed. During the American Revolutionary War, Toms River was home to a strategically important salt works that supplied colonial militias, as well as a base for privateer vessels that plundered British and Tory ships off the coast. In March 1782, a group of British and loyalist soldiers attacked a blockhouse along the river that housed the colonial militia and captured Captain Joshua Huddy, who was later hanged at Sandy Hook. Also destroyed were the salt works and most of the houses in the village.Three Dramatic Scenes in the Closing Hours of the Revolutionary Struggle , Gen. W. H. Stryker, presentation at Doylestown Meeting, January 21, 1885. Provides a comprehensive account of the incident at Toms River in 1782 and its aftermath. The incident greatly complicated the tense relationship between the British, loyalists, and colonists, and was a factor in prolonging the peace negotiations that were then in progress in Paris until 1783.
Dover Township was incorporated as one of New Jersey's first 104 townships by the Township Act of 1798 of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798. The township's original name was for Dover, England.Urgo, Jacqueline L. "Goodbye, Dover; hello, Toms River Voters decided to redub the township with the name everyone knows." , The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 10, 2006. Accessed October 12, 2015. "The king of England named the Ocean County town Dover 239 years ago, but the pioneer name Toms River is the one that stuck. ... Even though the king changed the name in 1767 to Dover, residents continued calling the place Toms River—perhaps in protest—dropping the apostrophe by the 1850s."
The village of Toms River is listed on both the nationalMultiple Property Submission List , National Register of Historic Places. Accessed August 7, 2006. and state registers of historic places.New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, Ocean County , New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Historic Preservation Office, updated December 31, 2019. Accessed March 6, 2020.
Mid-19th and early 20th centuries
In 1850, Toms River became the county seat of the newly created Ocean County when it was formed out of southern Monmouth County. During the second half of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th, many new towns were carved out of Dover Township, including Brick, Jackson, Lakewood, and Berkeley. The Village of Toms River attempted twice—in 1914 and 1926—to secede from Dover Township, but residents were unsuccessful. The part of Toms River on the south side of the river stretching down to Berkeley Township incorporated as South Toms River in 1927, but the core of the original village on the north side remains part of the wider township to this day.History of Dover Township , Ocean County Historical Society. Accessed August 3, 2006.
Portions of the township were taken to form Jackson Township (March 6, 1844), Union Township (March 10, 1846, now Barnegat Township), Brick Township (February 15, 1850), Manchester Township (April 6, 1865), Berkeley Township (March 31, 1875), Island Heights (May 6, 1887), Lavallette (December 21, 1887), and Seaside Heights (February 26, 1913).Snyder, John P. The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606–1968, Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 202. Accessed May 30, 2024.Honeyman, Abraham Van Doren. Index-analysis of the Statutes of New Jersey, 1896–1909: Together with References to All Acts, and Parts of Acts, in the 'General Statutes' and Pamphlet Laws Expressly Repealed: and the Statutory Crimes of New Jersey During the Same Period, p. 124. New Jersey Law Journal Publishing Company, 1910. Accessed October 12, 2015.
Mid and late 20th century In the last two decades of the twentieth century, the demographics of the township changed substantially, adding over 20,000 residents just in the 1990s alone. While the village is still the center of municipal and county government, the population in the area exploded in the decades after World War II, due in part to the completion of the Garden State Parkway. Whereas the village was the largest and most densely populated section of the township for over two centuries, the vast majority of residents now shop and work in other sections of the town.
Superfund site
In the mid-1990s, state and federal health and environmental agencies identified an increased incidence of childhood cancers in Toms River from the 1970–1995 period. Multiple investigations by state and federal environmental and health agencies indicated that the likely source of the increased cancer risk was contamination from Toms River Chemical Plant (then operated by Ciba-Geigy), which had been in operation since 1952. The area was designated a United States Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site in 1983, after an underground plume of toxic chemicals was identified. The following year, a discharge pipe was shut down after a sinkhole at the corner of Bay Avenue and Vaughn Avenue revealed that it had been leaking. The plant ceased operation in 1996.Ciba-Geigy Corp . United States Environmental Protection Agency, dated December 14, 2004. Accessed January 31, 2005New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, Hazardous Site Health Evaluation Program, Division of Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health, & US Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). (Sep. 1997). Childhood Cancer Incidence Health Consultation: A Review and Analysis of Cancer Registry Data, 1979–1995 for Dover Township (Ocean County), New Jersey NJDHSS, ATSDR. (December 2001). Case-control Study of Childhood Cancers in Dover Township (Ocean County), New Jersey. Volume 1: Summary of the Final Technical Report PDF 134KB . See also: Dover Township Childhood Cancer Investigation . Accessed January 31, 2005.
A follow-up study from the 1996–2000 period indicated that while there were more cancer cases than expected, rates had significantly fallen and the difference was statistically insignificant compared to normal statewide cancer rates.Citizen's Guide to the Childhood Cancer Incidence Update: A Review and Analysis of Cancer Registry Data, 1979–2000 , January 2003.
Since 1996, the Toms River water system has been subject to the most stringent water testing in the state and is considered safe for consumption.Milke, Jean. Population explosion is talk of Toms River , Asbury Park Press, November 11, 2004. Accessed January 4, 2007. Dan Fagin's Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, the 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning book, examined the issue of industrial pollution in detail.The 2014 Pulitzer Prize Winners – General Nonfiction , Pulitzer Prize. Accessed December 18, 2014. "In an astonishing feat of investigative reporting, prize-winning journalist Dan Fagin recounts the sixty-year saga of rampant pollution and inadequate oversight that made Toms River a cautionary example for fast-growing industrial towns from South Jersey to South China."
Toms River Township