History of Jersey City, (Hudson County) New Jersey United States of America

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Local History Notes:

JERSEY CITY, capital of Hudson county, New Jersey, on the right or W. bank of the Hudson river, at its entrance into New York bay, and opposite New York city, from which it is 1 mile distant. It is the eastern terminus of the New Jersey railroad leading to Philadelphia, and the southern terminus of the Hudson and Paterson railroad. The Morris canal connects it with Easton, in Pennsylvania. Five large ferry-boats ply continually between New York and this city, and the Cunard line of ocean steamships run from this port. Jersey City is well built, with wide streets, crossing each other at right angles, and lighted with gas. There are 8 churches, viz. 2 Methodists, 2 Reformed Dutch, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Baptist, 1 Episcopal, and 1 Catholic. It contains 2 banks, a large manufactory of glass, one of black-lead, one of porcelain or delft-ware, several iron foundries, and two newspaper offices. It has several seminaries and a high-school, which enjoys a distinguished reputation. Arrangements have recently been made to supply this city with water from the Passaic river, 7 or 8 miles distant. The reservoir is on Bergen Hill, 2 miles W. from the city. The cost of the water-works is estimated at $600,000. The introduction of good water will, it is thought, commence an era in the growth and prosperity of this city. Steamers can always leave Jersey City for Europe, without obstruction from ice, which they cannot do from New York. Population in 1853, 18,456.

Biographies:

Miles Greenwood, iron founder, was born in Jersey City, N.J., March 19, 1807. His father removed with his family to Ohio in 1817 and settled near Cincinnati, where in 1832 Miles established the Eagle iron works which became the largest concern of the kind in the west. He introduced in Cincinnati in 1852 the first steam fire-engine used in the United States and secured the introduction of a paid fire department. He helped to found the Ohio mechanics institute and was a pioneer in mechanical education in Ohio. At the outbreak of the civil war he refused all private contracts and devoted his entire force to government work, casting anchors, rifling muskets, casting cannon and building iron-clad gunboats. His works were burned three times during the war. It was supposed to have been the work of Confederate spies. and his losses from these fires amounted to more than $100,000. He died in Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 6, 1885.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

George Catlin, author, was born in Wilkesbarre, Pa., July 26, 1796; son of Putnam and Polly (Sutton) Catlin, and grandson of Eli and Elizabeth (Way) Catlin, his grandfather being a captain in the revolutionary army. He was educated at home, and during 1817 and 1818 studied at a law school at Litchfield, Conn., where he became noted as an amateur artist. He followed his profession in New York, Buffalo, Norfolk, and in Philadelphia, from 1823 to 1829, and later travelled in all parts of America and Europe, becoming especially well-known as a painter of North American Indians. From 1852 to 1857 he travelled in Central and South America, and spent the following fourteen years in Europe. Among his published writings, all of which are profusely illustrated by himself, may be noted: Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection (1848); Museum of Mankind (1851); Illustrations of the Manners, Customs and Condition of the North American Indians (7th ed., 1848); The Breath of Life (1864); Last Rambles amongst the Indians of the Rocky Mountains and the Andes (1868); The Lifted and Subsided Rocks of America (1870); Life Among the Indians (1847); and O-Kee-pa; a Religious Ceremony; and other Customs of the Mandans (1867). He died in Jersey City, N. J., Dec. 23, 1872.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Robert Gilchrist, lawyer, was born in Jersey City, N.J., Aug. 21, 1825. He was admitted to the bar in 1847 and was afterward made a counsellor of the U.S. supreme court. He was a member of the New Jersey assembly in 1859; entered the service as captain in the 2d New Jersey volunteers and served. 1861-65. In 1866 he was a Democratic candidate for representative in the 40th congress. He was appointed attorney-general of New Jersey in 1869 by Governor Randolph to fill the unexpired term of George M. Robeson, appointed to President Grant's cabinet, and was reappointed for a full term in 1873 by Governor Parker. In 1875 he was the Democratic candidate for U.S. senator. He was an authority on constitutional law and by his interpretation of the fifteenth amendment to the Federal constitution, secured the right of suffrage to the negroes of New Jersey. In 1873 he was appointed one of the commissioners to revise the state constitution, but resigned before the work was completed. He declined an appointment as justice of the supreme court of the state and the office of chief justice of New Jersey. He was instrumental in securing to the United States the sum of half a million dollars bequeathed by Joseph L. Lewis for partial liquidation of the national debt. He was the author of the riparian-rights act of New Jersey, from which is derived a large part of the state public school fund, and was the counsel for the state in the suit that tested the constitutionality of that act. He was married to Fredericka, daughter of Gen. Samuel R. Beardsley of Oswego, N.Y., and the author of The True Story of Hamlet and Ophelia (1889). He died in Jersey City, N.J., July 6, 1888.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

William Libbey, educator, was born in Jersey City, N.J., March 27, 1855; son of William and Elizabeth (Marsh) Libbey and grandson of William Seavey and Sarah (Farrington) Libbey. His first ancestor in America was an early settler of Portsmouth, N.H., 1630. He attended the Polytechnic institute, Brooklyn, N.Y., and was graduated from the Co11ege of New Jersey, A.B., 1877, A.M. and Sc.D., 1879. He was married, Dec. 7, 1880, to Mary Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Prof. William Henry Green, of Princeton Theological seminary. He was associate professor of natural science at Princeton, 1880-83; professor of physical geography and director of the E.M. Geological museum, 1883-85, and professor of histology, 1885-98. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical society and of the Royal Geological society of London in 1880, the geographical and geological societies of France in 1879, and became foreign secretary of the American Geographical society. He edited Guyot's Physical and Meteorological Tables. (1884), and Guyot's Physical Geography (1884).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor