The Little Egg Harbor / Tuckerton area was settled in 1698 with the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians, Quakers, and European immigrants. Prominent families of the settlement included the Andrews, Falkinburg, Shourd, Ong, Willet, Tucker, and Osborn families. The area had several colloquial names: Andrew Mills; Middle-of-the-Shore; Clamtown; Quakertown; Fishtown and Tuckerton from Ebenezer Tucker one of the prominent settles of the area. In March 1789, Ebenezer Tucker hosted a feast at "Clamtown" for the residents, at which time they officially changed the name the town to Tuckerton.
The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape lived peacablly with the settles of Tuckerton. These Native Americans have been described as a warm and hospitable people who wanted to live in harmony with the settlers and fish and hunt in this area. Although, their natural instinct was to be accommodating and peaceful, if provoked, could react with terrible violence.
The Lenape were the largest tribe of Indians on the east coast. Their name translates as either "original people" or "true men". Among other Algonquin speaking Native American tribes the Lenape were called the "grandfathers", a term of great respect stemming from the widespread belief that they were the original tribe of all Algonquin speaking people.
Tuckerton grew into a great ship building town, and exported large quantities of lumber with many saw mills, wheelwrights, thatcher and blacksmiths. It is also the home of the famous duck decoy carver, Harry Shourds, whose decoys remain in great demand even today.
Tucker's Island off shore from Little Egg Harbor was probably New Jersey's first summer resort. The island sported boarding houses, private cottages and a school. In 1848, a Lighthouse was erected there, with Eben Rider as its first light keeper. In 1869 the Little Egg Harbor Lifesaving's Station was constructed there. Also known as Sea Haven, the island contained two hotels. An ad, signed by Ebenezer Tucker in Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser, dated Monday 28, 1798 attracted vacationers from sea bathing, fishing and fowling. The stage left every Thursday at 4 A.M. from Coopers Ferry and arrived at Mt. Evans, Tuckerton, the same evening. The sea took its toll and Tucker Island no longer exists today.
In 1816, Isaac Jenkins established the first stage line between Tuckerton and Philadelphia, making one trip a week, each trip taking two days travel each way. John D. Thompson, Esq., bought the line in 1828 and ran the stages through each way in a day and carried the mails. The stages and and sea vessels were the only public conveyances to the cities until 1871 when the Tuckerton Railroad was built. Tuckerton Railroad helped attract more and more summer visitors to our shores. In 1871, a short spur was built to Edge Cove, where the visitors could be ferried across the bay to Long Beach Island. The steam boats, "Barclay" and "Pohatcong" carried passengers and freight to Beach Haven. The spur was abandoned in 1886 when direct rail service to Long Beach Island was established. However a flat cart and rails remained which bay men converted to their use by fully rigging it with a mast and sails, so they could easily transport their clams, fish and oysters to the railroad station.
The Tuckerton Wireless Tower was built in 1912 by the High Frequency Machine Corporation for Wireless Telegraphy company of Germany, on the present-day Mystic Island which was called was called Hickory Island in 1912. The tower was used to communicate with an identical radio telegraph station in Germany starting on Jun 19, 1914. The station continued to communicate with Germany until America entered World War I on April 6, 1917. It is rumored that it was used to send the message to order the attack by a German U-boat on the RMS Lusitania. After President Wilson's Declaration of Neutrality, the President ordered the US Navy to take over the station on Sep 9, 1914 to assure the neutrality of messages sent to and from the station; however, the station continued to be operated by German nationals and continued to communicate only with the German radio station. When America entered the war, all U.S. radio stations were seized and shut down by Executive Order. The Tuckerton Radio Station was then assigned to the US Navy, which used it primarily to back-up the communications of the US Navy's main transatlantic radio station in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The remaining German personnel at Tuckerton became war prisoners and were replaced by Navy personnel when the U.S. entered the war. After the war, the Tuckerton Wireless Station was included in German war reparations paid to America. Shortly afterwards, it was sold to RCA, which operated it until 1948 as a backup to their Radio Central facility in Rocky Point, New York.
The 680-foot steel tower, anchored by three large concrete blocks, was taken down on December 27, 1955. The three huge anchor blocks still exist today, in a backyard on North Ensign Drive and in the middle of South Ensign Drive and Storysail Drive.
In the early 1930’s Catholics were traveling as far as thirty miles to worship at the Church of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Beach Haven. In October 1934 the Church of Saint Theresa was engendered as a mission church of the Church of Saint Thomas Aquinas to meet the growing Catholic population in and around Tuckerton NJ. The Franciscan Friars of Church of Saint Thomas Aquinas celebrated Sunday Mass in Tuckerton in a rented store on West Main Street which faithfully served the Catholics of Tuckerton and New Gretna areas as the Mission Church of St. Theresa until November 1944. In personal a letter, Mrs. Samuel Carhart wrote:
"In 1934 a store front was rented in Tuckerton. One half had been used as a pool room, which the church did rent. The other half was rented by a Catholic couple and took care of the Church.”
In 1944 the Steelman House on Cedar and East Main Streets was purchased by the Diocese of Trenton and became the new site of the Mission Church of St. Theresa. The first Mass was celebrated at this new location on October 22, 1944. On November 14, 1944, Rev. Peter J. Teston became the first Diocesan Pastor of the Church of St. Mary's Church in Barnegat and the Mission Church of St. Theresa.
In 1953 the Steelman House was demolished and a new church was constructed on the site which was dedicated as the Mission Church of St. Theresa on April 12, 1953. In September of 1954 the Mission Church of St. Theresa became formally established as a Parish of the Diocese of Trenton. In 1974, in order to accommodate our increased summer and winter attendance, Saint Michael's Mission Church was established in Mystic Island and in 1985 a new wing was added to the Church of St. Theresa.
In 2001, realizing the continued and potential growth of the Parish of St. Theresa, the Diocese and Rev. Terence McAlinden began the formal process to build a new Church and Parish Center. A new site was purchased on Radio Road in Little Egg Harbor. In an effort to raise the necessary funds for the new construction, Rev. McAlinden sold the building and property of Saint Michael's Mission Church located on Mystic Island to the Township of Little Egg Harbor which became the Township Community Center. The Parish Rectory was sold to a private company in 2005. And the Church of St. Theresa located on Main Street in Tuckerton was sold in 2006 to the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Smith presided at the gala groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the new Church of St. Theresa on Radio Road in Little Egg Harbor on August 29th, 2004. At this time soil brought from Saint Theresa's Carmelite Monastery in Lisieux, France was combined into the soil of the new Church site. On August 24, 2005, relics of Saint Theresa and Saint John Neumann as well as the names of every person who had been buried from the Church of St. Theresa on Main St. in Tuckerton were placed in the soil directly below the future site of the Altar. The names of those who were baptized in the Tuckerton church were placed in the soil directly below the future site of the Baptismal Pool. In new the Church of St. Theresa was dedicated and opened in 2006.
In 2008 Rev. Mick Lambeth was made pastor and work began on the new Faith Formation Center and Administrative Offices. This facility was dedicated and opened in 2011.
Pastors of our parish since 1947 have been:
Rev. Peter H. Teston (1947-1950)
Rev. Alexander A. Burant (1950-1954)
Rev. Arthur J. St. Laurent (1954-1958)
Rev. James A. Thompson (1958- 1962)
Rev. James Remias (1962-1965)
Rev. Dominic Turtura (1965-1969)
Rev. Thomas Dennen (1969-1972)
Rev. George Deutsch (1972 - Administrator)
Rev. Msgr. Maurice P. Griffin (1972-1981)
Rev. Harry E. Cenefeldt (1981-1986)
Rev. Msgr. James F. McManimon (1986-1988)
Rev. Terence O. McAlinden (1988-2007)
Rev. Msgr. Hugh Ronan (2007 – Administrator)
Rev. K. Michael Lambeth (2008- 2019)
Rev. John Large (2019 to present)