Mantua Creek is a tributary of the Delaware River in Mantua Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey. Mantua Creek's headwaters are near Glassboro, flowing northwest for 18.6 miles (29.9 kilometers) to the Delaware River at the Port of Paulsboro in Paulsboro across from present-day Philadelphia International Airport.NJ Hometown Locator: Mantua Creek, Gloucester County, accessed August 27, 2011.South Jersey Land & Water Trust: Mantua Creek Watershed Facts , accessed August 27, 2011.
The name Mantua Creek is derived from the name of the Manta, or Mantes, subtribe of the Lenape Native Americans. Colonial-era maps refer to the creek with names such as Manteskÿl, Great Mantoes Creek, and Manto Creek.New York State Museum. New York State Museum Record, Vol. 5, No. 1. Albany: University of the State of New York, State Education Department. Available at: https://nysm.nysed.gov/sites/default/files/nysmrecord-vol5-1.pdf
Mantua Creek and its two major tributaries, Edwards Run and Chestnut Branch, drain over of Gloucester County.South Jersey Land & Water Trust, 2011, op.cit.
History Early human settlement along Mantua Creek dates back to the Lenni-Lenape Native Americans who exploited its abundance of fish and game and utilized the creeks for transportation. Early European settlers also used the creek for transportation, and constructed saw mills and grist mills on the creek and its streams, encouraging flood plain development for agriculture.Mantua Township Clerk’s Office, 2011, op.cit.
Carpenter's Landing was a 17th-century mercantile settlement located at the head of sloop navigation on Mantua Creek.Henry Charlton Beck: More Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, N.J., 1963, pp. 299-301.
In the 1860s, it was described as "a place of considerable trade in lumber, cordwood, etc., and contains one tavern, two stores, 30 dwellings and a Methodist church".Beck, p. 299. The landing is said to have been named either for a man named Carpenter who built boats at the site during its mercantile boom days,Beck, p. 300. or Edward Carpenter (son of Thomas Carpenter and descendant of Samuel Carpenter of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) who owned the Heston & Carpenter Glass Works at nearby Glassboro, New Jersey in 1786Charles S. Boyer: Old Inns and Taverns in West Jersey, Camden County Historical Society, Camden, N.J., 1962, pp. 158-159.Borough of Glassboro: History - The Past, , retrieved 1 Aug 2010. in partnership with Col. Thomas Heston, his wife's nephew.Arthur Adams: "Memoirs of the Deceased Members of the New England Historic Genealogical Society" in The Northeast Historic and Genealogical Register, Vol. CVII, Whole Number 425, January 1953, p. 70.
Bridge problem The bridge at has been cited for two freight train derailments, one in 2009 and one in 2012. On November 30, 2012 a serious accident released vinyl chloride from rail cars that plunged into the creek. Coast Guard officials reported that the tidal flows of the creek seriously delayed cleanup.
See also List of rivers of New Jersey
References