Whippany
circa 1676
This is a fancy cursive type face of Whippany
from the last letterhead of the Whippany Paper Board Company, 1980
The following Whippany village description is an abridged narrative from A Place Called Whippany, 2nd Edition—
Chapter 4—Villages of Hanover Township:
Whippany was first recorded in 1676 and settled circa 1685. The first settlers arrived from New England, Elizabeth Town and Newark. They traversed westward over the Minisink Trail where they forded the Whippanong River and walked along its shore. There upon the gentle landscape above the river’s edge they established the first settlement. The first dwellings were built between the Whippanong River and the Minisink Trail in the vicinity of what is now known as the colonial Whippany graveyard on Route 10. Whippany is said to be the earliest settlement of what is now Morris, Sussex, and Warren Counties. “Whippenny” has the distinguished honor of being the original name of all the land now known as Morris County.
Not long ago Whippany was a sparsely populated community with an industrial heritage dating back to colonial times. The first industry in Whippany was an iron forge built in 1715 on Whippanong River, now known as the old iron works. For over two centuries Whippany boasted of many mills along its river and it was considered a “mill town.” It’s most prominent industries of the last century were the Whippany Paper Board Company that ran three paper mills in town, The Hanover Brick Company that mined clay and made bricks, and Bell Labs, a research and development laboratory that aired the first television broadcast in the world—televised from Whippany to New York City, pioneered radar, and invented new forms of telephone technology, the transistor, and solid state electronic circuitry.
Whippany is now known as a suburban, bedroom community with a mix of office parks, recreational parks, highly rated schools, homes, and safe streets. Whippany has a fire department, three schools, five churches, seven parks, and a scenic river.
Currently Whippany is without a post office since it was damaged by three feet of flood waters during Hurricane Irene, August 28, 2011. Residents of Whippany still have a mailing address and zip code, but unless and until other arraignments are made, Whippany’s mail is sorted and delivered out of Morristown.
Copyright 2006
All rights reserved
Limited excerpts of this text may be copied or reproduced
with acknowledgment as copy from A Place Called Whippany, by Leonardo Fariello.
Contact Information: Len Sunchild Publishing Co., Len@whippany.net, 973-539-5355