[23] Before European settlement began, the area now known as Montgomery Township was inhabited for approximately 20,000 years by Lenni Lenape tribal groups.

[19] The first European landowners in what was to become Montgomery Township, such as Johannas Van Home and Peter Sonmans, were speculators who did not live on the land, but sold large parts of what they owned to companies that subdivided it into farm-sized plots for those who did intend to settle.

[24] Most of the land is flat and fertile, running westward from the Millstone River to Province Line, which divides Somerset from Hunterdon County and once marked the division between East and West Jersey.

Farms of 300 to 500 acres (1.2 to 2.0 km2) were common, some owners keeping a few slaves to work the land and serve in the household.

Each farm had a vegetable garden, orchard, pasturage and fields for grain, as well as a stand of timber to be selectively cut for fuel.

Each farm on the flatland was assigned a separate strip of woodland that ran up to the Hunterdon border, all crossing Rock Brook.

When churches, schools, general stores, blacksmith shops and hotel/taverns were built, they tended to cluster at intersections or other important points.

For example, the intersection where the Carrier Clinic now stands used to be called Plainville or Posttown, having in the nineteenth century a post office, store, school house, blacksmith and wheelwright shops, as well as a hotel/tavern where the circuit judge presided.

In the early years of the twentieth century, the arrival of the automobile, of electricity and of the telephone brought further growth and change.

In consequence, and over time, the one or two room schoolhouse was supplanted by the central school, post offices were consolidated and most of the hotels/taverns disappeared.

The crossroad hamlets that once offered basic services of general store, blacksmith shops and the like disappeared also, many leaving only their names to mark a road or an area: Skillman, Bridgepoint and Dutchtown are examples.

Before that time Montgomery and Mount Lucas Roads were parts of the chief north–south route through the center of the Township.

As the twentieth century drew to a close even these ventures no longer offered the farmer an easy existence, given the rapidly appreciating value of the land, over against the low prices of products produced on it.

Since the Second World War, housing developments, shopping centers and business parks have sprung up, leaving as remnants of the long tradition of agriculture in Montgomery roadside stands, riding stables and the like.

As rapid growth throughout the Princeton area has spread suburban sprawl across the Township, the push to limit runaway development and to acquire open space has become an urgent concern of the community.

In the last decade of the twentieth century, Montgomery's population nearly doubled, making it the fastest growing township in the county.

[1][2] Belle Mead (with a 2010 Census population of 216[26]), Blawenburg (280[27]), Harlingen (297[28]), and Skillman (242[29]) are unincorporated communities and census-designated places (CDPs) located within Montgomery Township.

[30][31][32] Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Amwell, Bridgepoint, Dutchtown, Fairview, Plainville, Rocky Hill, Stoutsburg, and Zion.

A portion of the southern section of the township is serviced by the Princeton post office with ZIP code 08540.

In addition, the Township acquired from the State the adjacent wastewater treatment facility on 7 acres (28,000 m2), behind the State-owned Skillman Dairy Farm.

The NPDC property, originally established in 1898 as the "New Jersey State Village for Epileptics," operated as a self-contained community that consisted of hospitals, housing, maintenance areas, schools, a power plant, a wastewater treatment facility and an on-site landfill.

Most recently, and until 1998, the property was the New Jersey Department of Human Services' psychiatric care facility "North Princeton Developmental Center".

Efforts are ongoing to remediate environmental conditions at the site and repair or demolish the dam and restore the lake.

The local Republican team led by Kacey Dyer and Mark Caliguire proposed selling all of the land to Somerset County to create a passive-use park.

In April 2015 a ribbon cutting ceremony was held by County officials to celebrate the park's opening.

[3][53][54][55][56][57][58][59] In June 2022, the Township Committee appointed Vincent Barragan to fill the seat expiring in December 2022 that had been held by Kent Huang until he resigned from office the previous month.

[60] When she took office in January 2019, Sadaf Jaffer became the first South Asian woman to hold a mayoral position in New Jersey.

[90] Among the township's 2010 Census population, 64.0% (vs. 60.4% in Somerset County) were registered to vote, including 92.6% of those ages 18 and over (vs. 80.4% countywide).

In late 2008 the high school added a solar panel field to save on energy costs.

However, since the 2005–2006 school year, enrollment has been flat due to a dramatic slowing of residential development in town.