Montgomery Township occupies roughly 32 square miles between the Sourland Mountain and the Millstone River, where the indigenous Lenni Lenape caught migrating shad fish for thousands of years until Dutch settlers arrived in the 1600s. The Lenape called this place Lenapehoking.
The Europeans arrived, cleared forests, and built an agriculture-based economy that benefited from fertile plains and proximity to markets in New York and Philadelphia. The area was originally known as the “Western Precinct” of Somerset County (i.e. west of the Millstone River). Before the creation of Mercer County in 1838, the southern border extended to Nassau Street in Princeton. In 1798 the Western Precinct was organized as Montgomery Township. The name honors Colonel Richard Montgomery who died on a Revolutionary War battlefield.
More than 20 Montgomery residents are known to have served in the Revolutionary War. General George Washington led the Continental Army through Montgomery several times, including on the way to Morristown after the Battle of Princeton in 1777; on the way to the Battle of Monmouth in 1778; and on the March to Yorktown where the British surrendered in 1781.
