^ Vj!:.i,e^ JS-t F 144 -.^r^SV- -Aflf^ Class EiAi:: Book__it£^:£ — - ELIZABETH, N. J. (ELIZABETHPORTj Copyrighted and Published by THE ALFRED S. CAMPBELL ART CO. ELIZABETH, N. J. Cp^vkwht entry CLAJ58 0^ XXc, No. COPY 43 tr- ■©he "2Pasf. ^ I ^HB grant by King Charles II. to his royal relative James Duke of York of all the land in America "to the west of Hudsons River and east of the Delaware" was the immediate factor in developing one of the most successful of his majesty's colonies in the new world, because the noble Duke was wholly unfitted to the task of founding colonies and in 1664 transferred the grant to Lords John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, both Privy Councillors of the King. The country was named Nova Caesarea, after the Isle of Jersey, where Carteret was born and of which he had been Governor and defender in 1649 when it was attacked by the Parliamentarians. In July, 1665, the good ship Philip appears in New York Bay and proceeds immediately to the creek which we now know as the Elizabeth River. Landing at "the point" which is the terminus of Elizabeth avenue, the pioneers disembark and follow Captain Philip Carteret, a sturdy lad of twenty- six, who has a Governor's commission from Berkeley in his pocket. Tradition records that he was accompanied by a French gentleman named Robert Vanquellin, a surveyor by profession, Captain James Bollen of New York, and some eighteen laborers, who with the females, made some thirty in all; that he walked up the present Elizabeth avenue with a hoe on his shoulder, in token of his earnestness to share the toils and perils of the expedition with its humblest member. He called the place Elizabethtown in honor of Lady Elizabeth, the wife of Sir George Carteret. The settlement succeeded. It was the capital of the province of New Jersey for twenty-one years and was designated a port of entry. Here were located the government house, the custom house, the residence of the governor, principal provincial officials and highest courts of judicature. The province of this publication does not permit a survey of events that crowd the memories of this historic spot. In Colonial times the social, political and educational importance of Elizabethtown cannot be over-estimated. The town and its people have an honored place in the country's history and almost every colonial publication makes mention of the place. Here Elisha Boudinot, Edward Livingston, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr lived, were educated, and breathed in the air of the place the inspiration that gave independence to their country and earned for themselves fame and glory. Here General Washington frequently visited and dispatched his trusty messengers to the most loyal patriots of the colonies; and the revolutionary engagements with the enemy at Elizabethtown and through Morris avenue to Springfield, five miles away, are among the notable struggles lor independence. In later times through the war of 1812 and the Mexican war, the town preserved its honorable traditions, and numbered among its "first citizens" the doughty old General, Winfield Scott, lyieutenant-General commanding the Federal army at the outbreak of the rebellion. Through the countless changes of the passing years this lineage and history have stamped themselves upon Elizabeth and its people, and to those familiar with this history, it is not strange that to-day with 60,000 people, the City, and County of Union of which it is the capital, should exercise a controlling influence on the affairs of State which larger and more pretentious municipalities can no more than imitate. It is the home of Governors, Senators, Congressmen and Statesmen of the higher order. A A TlTH 60,000 citizens possessed of a large measure of local pride and banded together by social affiliations and temporal interests into a homogeneous com- munity, the position of Elizabeth is unique and enviable. Asphalted and shaded avenues, with graceful sweeps and curves about charming landscapes and tended gardens, afford irresistible allurements to the New York "commuter" from his busy, noisy, dusty and bustling metropolis twelve miles away. Some thousands of Elizabeth residents, therefore, leave the old town each morning by the New Jersey Central, Pennsylvania, lychigh Valley and Long Branch railroads for New York. The city is also connected by trolley lines and excellent highways for driving, riding and automobiling with the greater city and the "Borough of Richmond" is a half mile from our shore. The train and ferry to the big city take thirty minutes time, and a quarter-hour service is maintained in each direction during business hours, with reasonable service at all hours. Commutation rates are ten cents each way: single excursion trips twenty cents each way. Besides the charm of country life afforded by residences here, the city has public school facilities much superior 4 to those of New York, a grave factor with heads of families. Twelve new and commodious public buildings — the especial pride of the town — furnish healthful accommodation for the moral, mental and physical development of our youth. The city has efficient paid police and fire systems, paid health department, excellent water supply, trolley system by eight lines giving interchangeable transfers on payment of a single fare, connecting with Plainfield, Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, the Oranges, and our smaller environs. Property is usually taxed on a valuation of 40% to 50% of the market value, with a rate of 2.96, which is practically 1^% on the actual valuation. The taxable rateables in the city at the present time amount to $21,000,000, which means that upwards of $40,000,000 of improvements are within the city limits. The public debt is $3,000,000, inclusive of all our municipal property, such as schools, engine houses, police stations, parks, sewers, street improvements, etc. Over half a million dollars were spent last year by prop- erty owners for pavements and sewers, in addition to the ordinary tax revenues. The city is the "hub of the wheel" of county roads which connect us in all directions by magnificent telford and macadam of uniform construction with the cities and towns of of our own and adjoining counties. The industrial development has been exclusively within " Elizabethport," a local 5 name for a section of our city adapted to commercial and shipping purposes. Here over a hundred large manufactories give employment not only to our own people but also to several hundred mechanics from Newark and New York. Chief of these industries is the Singer Manufacturing Company, employing between 6,000 and 7,000 operatives, also The Cres- cent Shipyards, where some of the best ships of our navy have been built. Among other important concerns are The Henry R. Worthington Pump Works, Ball & Wood Automatic Cut-off Engine Works. Samuel L. Moore & Sons Company, Bowker Company, Borne-Scrym- ser Oil Company, Moffat Leather Company, Jenkins Rubber Company, A. & F. Brown Ma- chinery Company, Kalbfleisch Company, Anatron Chemical Company, Waclark Wire Com- pany, Locomotive and Car shops of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, New Jersey Dry Dock & Transportation Company, Alfred S. Campbell Art Company, Heidritter Lumber Mills Company, Hilson Cigar Company, American Sanitary Plumbing Company, American Gas Furnace Company, Am. Swiss File & Tool Works, Arnold, Schiff Umbrella Company, Bayway Refining Company, Clauss Bottling Company, Davis-Thornton Machinery Com- pany, Donner & Co. (Hatters and Furriers), Duncan Machine Works, Elizabeth Wagon Works, Hygienic Chemical Company, Lustral Leather Company, Mackle-Thompson Auto Company, Morey LaRue Laundry Company, Mountain Copper Company, Penn. & Del. Oil Company, E. Reboulin, Fils & Company (preserved fruits), Standard Sanitary Pottery Company, John Stephenson Car Works, Swan & Finch Oil Company, U. S. Grate Bar Company, Peter Breidt City Brewery Company, Rising Sun Brewing Company. Every one of the above concerns is a large employer of labor and no attempt has been made to classify any of the smaller establishments, of which we have several, such as shirt manufacturers and cloth goods makers, employing female help. The Board of Trade of the City devotes itself especially to the development and extension of Elizabeth as a great manufacturing city. These concerns find cheap and intelligent labor, reasonable taxes and exceptional railroad and water shipping facilities, enabling them to receive the raw material and transship the finished product with speed and economy "within our walls." Our proximity to seaboard and the metropolis makes Elizabeth the vestibule of the great- est commercial and industrial city in the world and a sharer in a growing degree of its mighty progress. "©he Sfuturc. T T is diflBcult to presage what a decade may bring to us, but we can with moral cer- tainty depend upon creditable progress. The city was chartered in 1855 and we have not added an inch of territory since that time. The development has all been within our original boundaries. Our increase in population by the census of 1900 was 38% — almost the largest in New Jersey. The adjustment of our financial affairs in 1888 has given us in one decade this enormous advance. Our two-fold character, namely a "city of homes" and a city of whirring wheels and smoke stacks, gives undoubted ascendancy to our fortunes over sister cities which have had to depend on but one of these features. Residential Elizabeth, to which the New Yorker is attracted by varied charms, is three miles from our water front where the industrial section is entirely located. Each factor thus tends to the development and is a stimulus rather than a hindrance to the other, and the next census must find Elizabeth and its 75,000 people coming again into recognition and a position in our country that will recall its proud station in the sturdy and aristo- cratic times that gave a birth of freedom to all beneath the starry flag. 8 iJHEW COK.NTY COUIXT HOUSE URSINO. -RESIDENCE OF HON. JOHN KEAN, U S. SENATOR. FORMERLY THE HOME OF EDWARD LIVINGSTON, COLONIAL GOVERNOR, WHOSE DAUGHTER WAS MARRIED HERE TO JOHN JAY, FIRST CHIEF JUSTICE OF U. S. WASHINGTON AND HAMILTON WERE FREQUENTLY ENTERTAINED IN THIS MANSION, FAMOUS IN COLONIAL HISTORY AS LIBERTY HALL." First 5tree.t. Look^ing LaoT Broad Street. Loo)^in&J^ort>j. JY MAL- Gjty Hospjtal. JSHAN^ Bu;LDJWG.ClTiZEMS BaNK NATjorjAL State: Bank. 5r. Patriots Cathedral, l.yCEU>] T^tATRE. Jacobs Thlatre. Suburban Golf Linj^s. v^ER&n Vail-Deane .i PuBuc ScijooL No. 4. PuBLiG 5g>]ool Mo. 1. A. A. F. Brown Co. 5tep^jenson Gar Wor)\5. J*^ASoniG Hall. N|aiden Lane Jewelery &, The Fair Dry Goods Stores. Peter Breidt Gir/ Brewery Go. Rising 5dn Brewjnc. Co. Newar)^ Avenue. Jefferson Par)\. "'"^^■Oa^s Joseph F Mchj^riuES pesiolkci Tt^f'"-^""^^'"* mn V -^M uiiiiT] 3 1 Mint *»« ( IK -.i.'J. ^ . .lilt* "■•' I' Ml ... 1 . ' ij'ri' fi^ ■■«• THE HOME OF THE SINGER EMPLOYING ABOUT 7000 OPERATIVES AND DISBURSING ONE OF THE LARGEST FACTORII LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Wi3f m