History of Lakewood :

Millionaires and common folk, pivotal events and everyday happenings - they're all threads running through the colorful tapestry of Lakewood Township's history.

When the first settlers came they found the Lakewood of today a dense forest, situated on off beaten Indian trails, during the days when Freehold, Tennent and Toms River were focal points in the American Revolution. The settlers gradually cleared the land, built their homes and created small hamlets, which they named after families or events which identified the particular localities. The first recorded history of present Lakewood began with the "Three Partners’ Mill," an area running parallel with the present State Highway 88, in the area of the South branch of the Metedeconk River. In this area, three Skidmore brothers John, George and Henry, settled. They dammed the stream and built a sawmill; in fact, lumbering continued to be a main source of income for the settlers until it was discovered that the soil was rich in ironstone, a brown lumpy ore, hard and studded with gravel.