Short answers, pulled from the story.
Bernards Township was originally formed by royal charter on the 24th of May 1760 under the name Bernardston Township. It was formally incorporated as Bernards Township by the New Jersey Legislature on the 21st of February 1798, as one of the state's initial group of 104 townships.
The township is named after Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet, who served as governor of the Province of New Jersey.
As of the 2020 United States census, Bernards Township had a population of 27,830, an increase of 1,178 from the 2010 count of 26,652.
Verizon Wireless, Fedders, and Hitachi Power Systems USA are all headquartered in Bernards Township. The Verizon campus occupies buildings that were formerly AT&T's world headquarters.
Ridge High School received the National Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence from the United States Department of Education for both the 1986-87 and 2009-10 school years. Newsweek ranked it 37th best in the country in 2015.
The Devil's Tree is a solitary oak tree located in a field off Mountain Road in the southern corner of Bernards Township. It has been the subject of several stories in Weird NJ magazine.