New Jersey native Samuel Brozina shares a brief look back on the history of his home city of Millville.
Born and raised in the New Jersey city of Millville, just 45 miles from Philadelphia, Samuel Brozina, a local landscaping service foreman and licensed pilot, reveals more about his home city located in Cumberland County and first established in the late 1700s.
“The city of Millville dates back to the late 1700s,” explains Brozina. Recognizing the area’s potential, with abundant woodland and in close proximity to the Maurice River, Captain Joseph Buck—a Revolutionary War veteran—first sought to establish Millville in 1795, according to the New Jersey native.
“In 1795, Captain Joseph Buck, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, began to draw up plans for Millville having recognized the area for its dense forests and position on the Maurice River,” reveals Brozina, a Cumberland County College graduate and licensed pilot born and raised in the city. The then-proposed town’s name, he says, came from the surrounding area’s abundance of mills – hence, Millville.
Approximately five years later, vacant lots went up for sale. “Then no more than a small village, Millville was organized as a township in 1801,” adds Brozina. Captain Joseph Buck, he goes on to reveal, would die just two years later. “By the time of Captain Joseph Buck’s death, Millville was still only home to fewer than 20 houses,” says the licensed pilot and New Jersey native.
According to Samuel Brozina, it wasn’t for another 60 years or more that Millville would achieve its city status. “The growing town was incorporated as a city in 1866,” he explains, “by an act of the state legislature, following which it would operate under the so-called mayor-council form of government until 1913.”
Until then, Brozina reveals that Millville’s mayor was routinely elected by the people. “In 1913, however, what’s known as the Walsh Act was passed,” says the lifelong Millville resident, “and the city entered its present commission form of government.”
To this day, there remain five elected commissioners, one of whom assumes the role of mayor, according to history buff Brozina. The southern New Jersey city of Millville is located in Cumberland County, approximately 45 miles from Philadelphia, 120-or-so miles from New York City, and around 140 miles from Washington, D.C.
Bordering municipalities include Lawrence Township, Deerfield Township, Downe Township, Maurice River Township, Commercial Township, and Vineland City.
“Millville enjoys excellent transport links to Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere,” adds licensed pilot Samuel Brozina, wrapping up, “including by boat, courtesy of the Maurice River which runs right through the heart of the city.”
