As you travel east on Route 537, you will be in the area where the village stores were located. About 1812 Job Throckmorton kept a store near the present day VanDerveer’s garage. Sometime around 1834 Edmund Connolly opened a blacksmith shop in the same area. William Forman and J. Elmer VanDerveer, who then opened a wheelwright Shop next to the blacksmith shop, succeeded him. Thomas E. Combs opened a store in 1828 at the southeast corner of the intersection. Combs stayed there until 1835 when he moved his business to Red Bank. It is not known what kind of businesses Mr. Combs or Mr. Throckmorton operated. They were thought to be general stores. We also know that there was a bakery on the northeast corner of the intersection and a post office in the village.

Traveling north on Wemrock Road, (originally called the North Road), you’ll see the one-room West Freehold Schoolhouse. The land on which it stands was originally part of the 143-acre Walker-Combs-Hartshorne farm. Ownership of the farm and land can be found as far back as 1686 when it was deeded from Proprietors of East Jersey to John Barclay(East Jersey Deed B40, 42). Chain of title brought the ownership to Rulif R. Schanck in 1832 (Monmouth County Deed A3 147). It is written that Mr. Schanck conveyed one acre of his land for the school to the Trustees, Samuel Conover, John H. Mount and William N. Thompson for a fee of $25.00. In 1847, the original name of the school was West Freehold Seminary and Collegiate Institute. The school was also known as the Old Schanck School. The current and lasting name became the West Freehold Schoolhouse. The school was in continuous use from 1847 until 1936 when it was closed and all districts in the area consolidated and went to the new West Freehold School on Route 537. There were eight school districts in the Township until 1936. They included East Freehold District #6, Freehold District #7, Paradise District #8, Georgia District #9 (later named Pleasant Grove), Siloam District #10, West Freehold District #11 and Thompson’s Grove District #12 and Aumock District #13. We find evidence that these districts were educating over 500 students per year by the end of the 1800’s.

Approximately one-half mile north on Wemrock Road is the Walker-Combs-Hartshorne Farmstead. This is now referred to as the Oakley Farm. The farm was officially entered into the National Register of Historic Places on October 4, 1990. The National Register is the official list of cultural resources significant in American History, architecture, archeology, engineering or culture. The farm was designated a landmark site by Freehold Township Committee, at the recommendation of the Freehold Township Historic Preservation Commission on July 25, 1995.

The farmhouse itself probably began as a 10’ by 8’ settler’s cabin in the early 1700’s, as evidenced by the fieldstone foundation and rough-hewn timbers in the crawlspace. Some of the timbers still have bark on them. The foundation is put together with a mud-based mortar. These are indications of early construction. After several owners and two additions to the house, it stands today much as it did in 1924 when the Oakley Family finally completed construction