Freeholder Subject Files, 1934-2012

This collection highlights the scope and responsibilities of the Board of Freeholders. The breadth of subjects can be seen in the container list. It includes pamphlets, reports, and news releases covering county land development projects, programs sponsored by the Board, recreation facilities, Tax Board reports, and much more.

The Subject File records were maintained for the Freeholders by the Clerk of the Board.

The series contains paperwork that was generated by federal, state, county, and local government agencies as well as groups and individual constituents and sent to the Freeholders for their consideration and possible action. The topics cover more than 500 subjects ranging from “Abstract of Ratables” to the “Youth Service Bureau.”  They show the evolution of county government from the halcyon days of a rural community in the 1930’s and 1940’s, through the tempestuous 1960’s and 1970’s, to the suburban county of the 1990’s and beyond.

Items of Special Interest:

Topic	Year	File Folder
Appointment of Ted Narozanick as first County Administrator	1967	132
History of the creation of the county flag	1955	138
History of Monmouth County	1975	139
Research involved with the creation of the County Seal	1969-1970	143
Dedication of the Court House	1968	144
Search for Molly Pitcher’s Well	1983	218
Controversies over the proposed purchase of the Marlu/Twitchell property	1984-1986	280-283
Ted Narozanick’s original job application	1956	341
Pew Creek Park controversy	1975-1979	389
Planned parenthood controversy	1962-1986	391-394
Red Bank Airport discussions	1940-1941	432
Superport Opposition	1972-1974	488
USS Monmouth during Vietnam War	1967-1970	533
Ted Narozanick Highway	2000-2001	556

These records are open to researchers.

A list of the first 728 folders in the record series is available as an Access database in the Archives. A list of the supplement acquired in 2014 is in an accompanying table in the database.

Subject files are arranged by subject, then chronologically within that subject. Supplement files are arranged by department, then alphabetically by subject within that department. The last box in the Supplement, Box 7, contains legal sized folders, while Boxes 1-6 contain letter-sized folders.

Monmouth County Archives
125 Symmes Drive
Manalapan, NJ 07726
Tel. (732) 308-3771

The original transfer (Accession 1995-01) comprised 294 boxes of subject files. In 2004, the Clerk of the Board’s Office sent an additional folder (now Folder 556) pertaining to the Ted Narozanick Highway under Accession #2004-01, followed by 98 additional carton boxes under Accession #2004-07.

In 2014, (Accession 2014-1) seven additional boxes of documents were transferred to the Archives from Librarian Beth Miller at the Government Documents Repository located at the Monmouth County Library – Eastern Branch. These records can be found under the Freeholders Subject Files Supplement at the end of the Shelf List below.

The 294 carton boxes in Accession 1995-01 were reduced to twenty-five cartons by the removal of duplicate, extraneous and valueless material. In 2004, the 98 additional boxes were reduced to 10 boxes through weeding and added to this series in 2011, beginning with Folder 557. At the request of the Clerk of the Board, resolutions with raised seals were removed from Accession 2004-07 and have been retained in a separate record series. An Access database was created November 5, 1999, containing 732 records, later reduced to 728. These subject files were microfilmed in June 2000 on 32 rolls.

In 2017, the boxes comprising the supplement received in Accession 2014-1 were arranged alphabetically by department, then by subject and date within same. An Access table was added to the existing database for this supplement.

This finding aid was created by Lawrence J. Cella on June 22, 1999; revised April 16, 2001; revised September 1, 2004; revised September 21, 2011; revised by George Joynson on May 4, 2017; revised March 2018 by Mary Hussey.

Shelf List and Supplemental Shelf List

See
Freeholder Minute Books; Freeholder Resolutions; and Freeholder Meetings.