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By Eugene E. Donatiello & John G. Leavey:  In 1850, when the New Jersey Legislature created Ocean County, they also created Brick Township among a region of virgin woodlands.  The new township was named after its most prominent resident, Joseph W. Brick, the industrious and successful owner of Bergen Iron Works.  As his and other local industries expanded, more and more people began to call Brick their home.  Brick Township records these founders and the events and places that helped them shape our community.  By 1920, parts of the new township had declared their independence, and the remaining parts of Brick began to evolve into a resort community.  The summer tourists, farmers, home builders and shipbuilders, anglers, hunters, tavern and innkeepers, merchants, and others helped fashion Brick into an intimate but prosperous community.  Brick continued to be a quiet, rural, resort area into the 1950s, when the Garden State Parkway opened, and residential and commercial development created dramatic growth in year-round residents, and it became a thriving suburban community.  Brick Township captures scenes of life in Brick from 1850 to the 1950s and beyond; from the early European settlers to the suburbanites who now call Brick their home; from the thriving poultry industry to area resorts; from Joseph Brick to our friends and family who live among us today.