News Updates as of 11 January 2010

• Arcadian Chorale is seeking an accompanist for an immediate opening, per Chorale Net. See the Chorale's calendar for a schedule of upcoming events.
• Fresh Air Fund still has some openings for its March 2010 NYC Half-Marathon. My contact from FAF wrote on 7 January, "I have updated information on the NYC Half Marathon.  The NYC lottery closed last night and winners were announced today.  The FAF team still has spots available and think interested runners will start researching teams to join if they didn't win a coveted lottery spot."
  
• Rayriepl has posted some interesting photos of the Raritan Bay's frozen coastline at Cliffwood Beach, as well as icy shots of Whale Creek on his Flickr site.
• Local ecobusiness B Green Innovations has absorbed its parent company, iVoice Technology, and established a new market trading symbol, (OTCBB:BGNN), according to Fox Business.
• Matawan woman, 51, may be charged with filing a false police report after claiming last July that she was raped in the Point Pleasant jail while being held on disorderly conduct, according to APP.
• Atlanticville is running an article on the origins of many Monmouth County town names that contains this bit of local history. Check out the whole article for interesting details about other area towns.
  

Matawan and Aberdeen were part of Middletown. Matawan means where two rivers come together in Lenape. Its Native American name was “Mechananienk.” The Dutch settlers and Indian tribe name on a 1656 map was “Matovancons.”
The English granted land to Jonathan Holmes in 1677. In 1684 Gen. Thomas Rudyard purchased land in the Cliffwood and Cliffwood Beach area. It became Warne’s Neck after the 1686 land grant to Stephen Warne.
Many streets and places are named after Philip Morin Freneau, the Poet of the Revolutionary War. He was classmates with President James Madison at Princeton University.
Rose Street and Rose Hill Cemetery were named after Joseph Rose in the Cliffwood section.
The Burrowes Mansion was built by John Bowne in 1723, who sold it to the merchant John Burrowes. Burrowes’ partners were the Imlays and the Hartshornes. Other land was owned by the Conovers, Terhunes, Longstreets, Stillwells and Herberts. Large-tract landowners were the Van Pelts, Van Brackles, John Bowne and John Reid.
In 1895 Matawan separated from Matawan Township.
Aberdeen Township broke away from Matawan Township in 1977. A section of Aberdeen is named after Freneau.