The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-03-05
DIVIDING UP NEW JERSEY.
Historical Sketch OF How the TWEEN
.ty-one Counties Were Erected.

.ty-one Counties Were Erected.
The earliest records that we nave of
the formation of counties in New Jer-
sey date back to 1852, under the Proprie-
tors. The State then consisted OF two
separate divisions, namely. East Jersey
and West Jersey, which has been kept
up ever since by political tradition, all
though long since abandoned for the pur-
pose Of government. Each division was
governed by a Board of Proprietors. In
1852 the East Jersey General Assembly
created four counties-Essex. Bergen,
Middlesex and M-onmouth-and in 1858
Somerset was erected. h area of Es-
sex then included what is now Union
County, and the latter county was not
separated from Essex until the year 1857,
having been a part of Essex for nearly
two centuries. Hudson was a part of Ber-
gen, says the Freehold Transcript"
IN West Jersey Cape May was erected
in 1855. but the province had formerly
been divided into, three counties, which.
however, were not well defined. South
Jersey was then a trackless waste OF
sand and pine. Indians abode in it's Wild
erness and wreckers piled their vocation
on its coast. There was very little settle
ment, except in the vicinity of Philadel-
phia, and most of the population consist-
ed of Quakers. In 1892 the bounds be-
tween Gloucester and Burlington counties
both near Philadelphia, were defined, and
in 1854 Salem, Burlington and Gloucester.
on the Delaware River, comprised the
inhabited part of West Jersey, all tina
rest being indefinite.
Thirteen years later, In 17O9, the bound
aries of all the counties of New Jersey
We're named. They were Essex, Bergen,
Somerset. Middlesex, Monmouth. Burling-
ton, Gloucester, Salem and Cape May. At
this time the population of the State was
less than 10000, of which 1900 belonged
to East Jersey and 5000 to West Jersey.
Holiness Annals give $1,000 population in
1701. While the English Quakers settled
in Gloucester and Burlington, there were
settlements of Swedes and Dutch on the
Delaware. Cape May was settled by Eng
lish whalers. In Cumberland County the
settlers were Connecticut Puritans, and
there were also some Irish settlers. The
Dutch spread over the territory now en-
braced in Bergen, Passaic and Hudson
counties and they found their way into
the Raritan valley and populated Somer-
set and Middlesex counties. There was an
of Dutch also in Monmouth.
Danes and Norwegians were among the
early settlers of Bergen also. Essex was
settled by Connecticut Puritans. In 1910
it was estimated that the Indian popula-
ton of the State had decreased to about
1900
In 1881 all the northern part of the Prov
ince of East Jersey not contained in the
existing counties was erected into the
county of Hunterdon, and in 1873 the
r---s- --,, 1o ,xal O,1f Of III
erdon. About this time county lines be-
came more clearly defined, and Monmouth
included what is now Ocean County. In
174S Cumberland was carved out of Salem,
and Sussex County, away up in the High
lands of the north, was made out of what
is now Sussex and Warren. 1t was not
until 1924 that Warren became a county
From 1924 to 1927 the process of erecting
new counties became more ~fequent. Pas
sale and Atlantic came into existence in
1897. Mercer was born in 1888 and two
years later Hudson was created. The
birth of Camden occurred four years later,
being taken from Gloucester. In 1850
Ocean was separated from Monmouth,
and in 1851, the last of the twenty-one
counties, Union was erected out of Es-
sex n part of Middlesex.
1t will be seen that the counties having
the largest areas have generally the
smallest populations. Atlantic, Burling-
ton, Cumberland, Ocean. Sussex and
Monmouth, each with 500 square miles.
cover S.956.5O square miles. Essex and
Hudson together cover only 1920 square
miles. The population of the six coun-
ties in 1890 was 24O, 1SS and that of Essex
and Hudson together was 8 1,224, or more
than double.
The proprietor governments of East
and West Jersey were SURRENDERED In 100,
and New Jersey became united under one
government. The dividing line between
the two divisions became thereafter only a
property line. There was uncertainty
about this line until it was definitely fix
ed in 1873, and is today represented in the
boundaries of ten counties. 1t runs from
The north side of Little Egg Harbor Inlet
to Coehectont crossing the Delaware
River about one and a half miles below
Dingman's Ferry. This gave East Jer-
sey 3,O13 miles, and West Jersey 4.722
miles.
nor nzsprh Nr npso muTcT