Freehold Township East

1. Briar Hill –
Although the main action of the Battle of Monmouth took place in and around the present Battlefield State Park, the hostilities actually began further east. The opening phase occurred near the Monmouth County Courthouse (now the Hall of Records area) in Freehold Boro and at Briar Hill. The Hill is located southeast of the John L. Montgomery home on Dutch Lane Road.

2. Poet’s Corner –
Perhaps one of history’s most famous residents of Freehold Township is Philip Freneau. Named the “Poet of the Revolution,” he originally lived in Matawan, and after his family home, an estate named “Mount Pleasant,” was destroyed by fire in 1818, he moved to another property he later owned in Freehold Township, now the site of the Poet’s Corner Condominium Development off Kosloski Road.
During the American Revolution, he served aboard privateers at sea and was later captured and imprisoned on a British prison ship. After the War he published a newspaper “The National Gazette” in Philadelphia, but was unable to make it a successful venture. He later moved the equipment to Mount Pleasant. A graduate of Princeton University, a war veteran, a publisher and sometimes-political writer, persons like, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr knew him. George Washington had referred to him as “that damned rascal.” His newspaper, The National Gazette, was considered by some to be an instrument of Thomas Jefferson to employ in his attacks against Hamilton and the Federal Administration.
Freneau died at age 80, in 1832, while returning home from the village of Freehold during a winter storm.

3. Burlington Road Toll House –
Now located at the Oakley Farm Museum this is one of the last remaining toll houses in the state. It was built in 1812 and stood in the vicinity of Burlington Road and Route 537. Travelers who passed the Toll House would stop and pay the toll keeper if they wanted to ride on the planked or smooth road. They had the option of taking the road next to it but if the ruts were too bad they risked having their horse get hurt or losing a wheel on their carriage or wagon. The toll keeper would in turn pay the shareholders for a return on their investment and for upkeep of the road. At this time in history all main roads were toll roads.