In 1829 a Fire Department was started by public subscription; about
the same time the Police Department also had its remote beginning in
the appointment of seven watchmen. After their term of office expired
their places were not filled until, in 1837, four night watchmen were
appointed and the City Marshal served by day. In 1844 three men were
appointed to serve as watchmen and lamplighters, with a salary of
$32 a month. In 1845 they were required to call the hour during the
night "until the hour of calling off arrive." Not until 1851 were
uniform caps and clubs introduced. In 1859 the first station house
was built at Cooper's alley and Gregory street. The present form of
police government was started in 1866 and the first mounted police were
organized in 1873.
The first attorney to practice law in Jersey City was James Wilson,
who opened an office in 1812. The Hudson County Bar dates from the
forming of Hudson County in 1840; at that time there were only eight
lawyers in this locality. The first court of the new county opened in
Lyceum Hall in Grand street, Jersey City, on April 14th, 1840, where it
continued to be held until September 19th, 1843, when the court removed
to the Newkirk house at the Five Corners, until the new Court House was
completed March 11, 1845. The situation of the Court House was warmly
debated, each town strongly urging its claims, but finally Hudson City
was decided upon, and a site on Newark avenue was selected for the
Court House and Jail; the latter was finished a little later than the
Court House, and both were built from trap rock quarried on the site.
Until 1843 there had been neither a City Attorney nor a City Physician,
but in that year both of these offices were created. In that same year
the city introduced street lamps, but at first in only those localities
in which the property owners had made application for them. Gas was
first used in Jersey City on December 1st, 1852; the streets were first
lighted with it a few days later, one hundred and seventy-four street
lamps being required. Electric lighting for the streets began about
1884. The first telephone service in the city was in 1878.