Elmer, NJ

Elmer is a Salem County borough formed from Pittsgrove and Upper Pittsgrove townships and incorporated in 1893. The town was named for Judge Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Elmer, a New Jersey jurist and congressman who helped secure its post office. Before that, the area was known as Cohockan, a Lenni Lenape name connected to cedar swamp land. Elmer’s early-1900s map was busier than the borough’s size might suggest: glass and shoe factories, saw and grist mills, creameries, a railroad-served potato market, and rows of small shops. The Appel Farm Arts and Music Festival also made the borough a music stop for years. Elmer is a South Jersey place with a jurist’s name, a cedar-swamp beginning, and an industrial past.