Jersey City

“ The water used by the city is of excellent quality and is brought from the basin of the Rockaway River in the northern part of the state. The city has eight municipal parks and one county park, containing nearly two hundred fifty acres. The city maintains a normal school for the training of its teachers and has an excellent public library.
Besides being an active industrial center it is a residential city. Many thousands whose occupations are in the city of New York live in Jersey City. ”

“ There are nineteen banks and trust companies. In manufacturing, Jersey City ranks second in the state. Its great commercial and industrial growth is due to its nearness to New York, to its connection with that city by ferries and railroad tunnels, by which passengers and freight are carried to the heart of the city of New York in a few minutes, and to the abundance of facilities for all kinds of transportation. ”

“ At Jersey City there come out to the Hudson River all the great Trunk Line railways from the West, with the single exception of the New York Central Railroad. In the Revolution, the site of the present Pennsylvania Railroad Terminal Station was a British fortification, which was partly stormed and captured, with a number of prisoners, in 1779, by Major Henry Lee. Jersey City is entirely a growth of the nineteenth century, at the beginning of which it had a population of only thirteen persons, living in a single house. ”

“ Jersey City is lamentably deficient in parks. Before the city was first established, some say that there was a small park in front of Lyons Hotel, others assert that there was only one willow tree there. After the city came into existence there was for many years, on the site now occupied by the brick-yard, south of Essex street, between Essex and the Canal, a pleasure resort called the Thatched Cottage Gardens, with trees, flowers and vines, where there was music, balloon ascensions and games, and ice cream served in the summer houses and arbors. ”

“ These men were eminent and successful lawyers in New York and became the founders of Jersey City. They divided their purchase into one thousand shares, associating others with themselves. A map of the property was issued and a sale of lots was advertised for May 15th, then adjourned to June 12th, 13th and 14th. Upon the 10th of November, 1804, the Legislature passed an act incorporating the "Associates of the Jersey Company." This bill was drawn up by Alexander Hamilton. To this corporate body Radcliff and Dey conveyed Paulus Hook, February 1st, 1805. ”

“ Before the white race came to America, the locality now known as Jersey City, was occupied by a branch of the Minsi division of the Lenni Lenape Nation of the Red Men, and was called Sheyichbi. The whole of the present state of New Jersey belonged to the Lenape, and was occupied by bands bearing different names according to the special features of the locality, but all recognizing their unity as one people. ”

“ The average cost of education per pupil has been found to be about $22 annually. There are several convents and a full equipment of asylums, homes, and other charitable institutions.
Jersey City is almost inclosed by water, thus affording excellent docking facilities, which, with its railroad connections, have aided its development as a shipping and receiving point, though officially it has no identity as a separate port, since its returns are included in those of the customs district of New York. It has also large slaughtering and meat-packing interests and extensive manufactures. ”

“ Jersey City owes to this gifted woman a debt of gratitude, not alone for her influence in awakening a love for science and literature among the young people, but for forming the Æsthetic Society, and in bringing hither the most celebrated people of the day, both American and foreign visitors, to our shores. She developed an interest among Jersey City women in intellectual pursuits which has grown and deepened with the years. ”

“ The result was the purchase of five and a half acres on the hill-side south of the Newark Turnpike, and the Jersey City Cemetery was opened, at that time a quiet, country place, where under the drooping willows, many families, prominent in the early life of Jersey City were laid to rest far from the noise of the young city; but with the passing years, the city has extended out to and far beyond their resting place, all about them are city streets and a railroad now runs along at the foot of the hill. ”

“ There are very few unpaved streets in Jersey City. Grand Street, in the heart of the city, and some of the avenues on the hill section back of the main portion are noteworthy for beautiful residences. ”

“ In the Civil War Jersey City was well represented. It is estimated that from the district now included in the city, one man from every five went to the war. From no part of the North was the response to the Nation's need more prompt or more loyal than in Jersey City. The President's call for seventy-five thousand troops was issued on Monday, April 15th, 1861. At the mass meeting held at the Hudson House on Grand street, on Tuesday evening, the first man in the state to sign the rolls of volunteers was James M. Weart, a young lawyer in his twenty-third year. ”

“ But Jersey City was, after all, a suburb only of New York. Some of my most devoted hearers came from New York, and urged me to go there. Dr. Bellows was anxious to found a third Society in the great city, and added his word to their solicitations, so that in the spring of 1859 I went thither. My church in Jersey City was continued for a short time, but I had no settled successor; the congregation did not grow; some of my most earnest supporters had either died or left the town. The war broke out and was fatal to institutions that had not a deep root. ”

“ Located on the southwest corner of Bergen and Sip Avenues, Jersey City, it has a situation that not only gives it the utmost convenience of access from New York and all surrounding suburbs and towns, but that also makes it central to all the business activities of this industrial and commercial New Jersey territory. ”

“ It is perhaps proper to mention that some time in the year 1868, a grand scheme originated in the fertile brains of some of the wise men of Jersey City, whereby a bill was prepared and introduced in the Legislature, which provided for the holding of an election in this county, at which the voters were to determine whether or not the county would be consolidated into one city, and under the corporate name of Jersey City. ”

“ May 26th, 1894, and it was completed January 1st, 1896. It is located on the block between Grove and Henderson, Mercer and Montgomery streets. The total cost, $736,267.56. It is quite an imposing building and large enough to accommodate the various departments of the city government. The interior arrangement is particularly fine; upon entering, the broad corridors give a pleasant impression, and the offices are spacious, light and commodious. An attempt is being made to have in the mayor's room, portraits of the mayors of Jersey City. ”

“ The Pennsylvania and Erie railroads have large grain-elevators here, and there are plants of the American Sugar Refining Company and the Lorillard Tobacco factories, which rank with the largest. Among the products of the industrial establishments are soaps and perfumes, candles, crucibles, lead pencils, patent iron dump-carts, compressed gas, glass, locomotives, railroad cars, iron and steel, zinc, copper, boilers, planing-mill, foundry and machine-shop products, chemicals, paints, oakum, jewelry, and pottery.
The government of Jersey City is administered by a mayor, chosen every two years ”

“ Hoboken is connected with the city of New York by the Hudson River tunnels and by ferries and with other cities of the state by many trolley lines. Its manufacturing industries include shipbuilding and repairing and the making of lead -xxiii- pencils, surveying and nautical instruments, marine engines and boilers, silk goods, furniture, and wall paper. Here is located the well-known Stevens Institute of Technology.
North of Hoboken and Jersey City are several cities and towns which are very important industrially and are rapidly growing in population. ”

“ New Jersey is thickly populated, well provided with railway and water transit, and busily engaged in manufactures—e. g. glass, machinery, silk, sugar. Newark (capital) and Jersey City are by far the largest cities ”

“ Eight trips a day were made, going from Jersey City to Newark in one hour and a half. The railroad cut was made by the New Jersey Railroad in 1837, following the line of a water course, and a depression across the ridge, which made it very crooked; the earth from the cut was piled up over one hundred feet high on the land belonging to the railroad back of the Tonnele place. The cars were drawn by horses until the locomotive, the Newark, was used December 2d, 1838. ”

“ There are in Jersey City over fifty clubs of various kinds. A few own handsome club houses, others meeting in hired rooms or at the homes of the members. So far as I can learn the Everett was the pioneer club of the city, and therefore justly gives precedence to the literary clubs. In 1865 the "Everett Literary Union" was organized, and met in a room over a store on Newark avenue. ”

“ Steam was winning, however, and soon its early demands gave a great impetus to the mechanical hand-crafts that it was destined to destroy. Jersey City, which had only about 300 inhabitants at the time of its incorporation in 1820, is credited in a record of 1845 with having 4000 population at that date. Among its larger industries were the works of the American Pottery Company, the Jersey City Glass Company employing about a hundred men, a famous fireworks establishment, a candle factory and many shops owned by individual mechanics. ”

“ Jersey City (206) , the most populous city in New Jersey, is separated from New York, of which it is practically a part, only by the Hudson River; has no pretension to beauty, but is a busy railway centre; has very varied manufactures, including sugar, flour, machinery, and chemicals, extensive shipping interests, and great trade in iron, coal, and agricultural produce.
Jerusalem (41) , the capital of Palestine, holy city of the Jews, belonged originally to the Jebusites, but was captured by David and made his capital; a strong place, built on four hills 2000 ft. ”

“ Previous to 1829 there were but few manufacturing interests in Jersey City. In that year several factories were established here, and since 1840 they have steadily increased until they are now so extended and varied, that in a sketch of this limited character they can only be lightly touched upon. While many business firms began here, others have removed to this city from other places; notably the Lorillard Tobacco Factory, which, started in New York in 1760, has grown to be the largest of its kind in the country. ”

“ In her various public schools, Jersey City possesses a splendid corps of teachers, whose faithful, efficient work has been broadly demonstrated in the practical education of hundreds of men and women of Jersey City. The many who have been able to have more extended educational advantages look back with pride to their early school days in Jersey City's public schools, where were laid the thorough foundations of their education. ”

“ Until Grand street was extended across the marsh in 1848 the people from Communipaw and along to Bergen Point could only reach Jersey City by way of Bergen, and the Priors Mill road or Newark avenue; where Monticello avenue now is was a marsh until comparatively recent times. On November 24th, 1790, the Legislature appointed five commissioners to locate and build bridges across the Hackensack and Passaic and lay out a road four rods wide from the Newark Court House to Paulus Hook. ”

“ Grain is shipped to and from Jersey City in large quantities, and in general the city is an important shipping port; being included, however, in the port of New York, no separate statistics are available. There are large slaughtering establishments, and factories for the refining of sugar and for the manufacture of tobacco goods, soap and perfumery, lead pencils, iron and steel, railway cars, chemicals, rubber goods, silk goods, dressed lumber, and malt liquors. ”

“ Jersey City, whence he had emerged upon the circle of patrons and patronesses who were to attend him on towards fame. With a subtle insight into his own resources, he knew that women would always be useful to him ”

“ So close to Jersey City that we were scarcely aware that it was separated from it by a few fields, we came to Newark, a great town of brick and wood houses, chimneys, factories, and churches, containing more than 120,000 people, and as we ran through the streets we got glimpses of some fine-looking buildings, of which we have nothing more to say. ”

“ In order to pass from Cape May to Atlantic City one takes a long circuit by rail through the Jersey sands. Jersey is a very prolific State, but the railway traveler by this route is excellently prepared for Atlantic City, for he sees little but sand, stunted pines, scrub oaks, small frame houses, sometimes trying to hide in the clumps of scrub oaks, and the villages are just collections of the same small frame houses hopelessly decorated with scroll-work and obtrusively painted, standing in lines on sandy streets, adorned with lean shade-trees. ”