At various times the city limits have been extended, and various
acts of Legislature have changed the governing power. In 1820 the
Legislature passed an "Act to Incorporate the City of Jersey, in the
County of Bergen." On the 23d of January, 1829, the corporate name
was changed to "The Board of Selectmen and Inhabitants of Jersey
City." On February 22d, 1838, the governing power was vested in the
"Mayor and Common Council of Jersey City." It now ceased to be a part
of Bergen Township and became a separate municipality. Dudley S.
Gregory was the first Mayor of Jersey City. He served in that capacity
in 1838-'39-'41-'58 and '59. He lived in the building now used as a
post office on Washington street, in what is still a pretty part of
the city, with its four park corners on Washington and Grand streets.
Mr. Gregory was a man of wealth and of public spirit; he imported a
large number of European shade trees, among them the variety of "horse
chestnut" which has become a favorite shade tree throughout our eastern
states, to such an extent that our native horse chestnuts or buckeyes
are scarcely known in the east, the principal difference being that the
native varieties have smaller clusters of flowers which shade from a
yellow or pink tinge to a deep pink or dull red. On March 8th, 1839,
the city boundaries were extended along the northerly side of First
street to the center of Grove street, thence southerly into Communipaw
Bay to the line of South street, extended. Hudson County was set off
from Bergen County in 1840. The township of Van Vorst, founded in 1804
by John B. Coles, was separated from the township of Bergen, March
11, 1841; it included all that portion formerly known as Ahasimus. In
March, 1851, it became a part of Jersey City.
In 1869 there was an effort made for the consolidation of the several
cities and townships in Hudson County, east of the Hackensack river,
into one under the name of Jersey City. At the election held October
5th, 1869, Jersey City, Bergen and Hudson City became one. The latter
had been taken from the township of North Bergen and incorporated as
the "Town of Hudson in the County of Hudson" on March 4th, 1852. On
the 11th of April, 1859, it was incorporated as the "City of Hudson,"
with powers of government vested in a mayor and common council. In 1873
the town of Greenville was annexed to Jersey City by legislative act.
Greenville was originally a settlement of German families on a part of
the Gautier tract. Lafayette was never a separate municipality; the
name was given by a land company to the Garrabrant farm when it was
bought and mapped out in town lots in 1856. The lots did not sell well
until after the war.
[Illustration: PAULUS HOOK AND VAN VORST.]