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New Jersey Counties
New Jersey CountiesNew Jersey has 21 counties. New Jersey was governed by two separate groups of proprietors as two distinct provinces, East Jersey and West Jersey, for the 28 years between 1674 and 1702. New Jersey's first counties were created as administrative districts within each province, with East Jersey split in 1675 into Bergen, Essex, Middlesex and Monmouth counties, while West Jersey's initial counties of Burlington and Salem date to 1681. The most recent county created in New Jersey was Union County, created in 1857 and named after the union of the United States |
Hudson County, New JerseyHudson County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
Etymology - Origin of County NameHudson is named for Henry Hudson, the famous explorer. Demographics:County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts County HistoryHudson County was originally called Pavonia, the land of the Peacock, after its original owner, the Dutchman Michael Pauw (Peacock). Part of the domain of the Dutch West Indies Company, the area was governed by Peter Stuyvesant, who established the town of Bergen in 1660. In 1674, all of New Amsterdam (and New Jersey) became English colonies, including Hudson County, which was then still part of Bergen County. In 1804, Col. John Stevens laid out the “New City of Hoboken” and in the same year, counseled by Attorney Alexander Hamilton, a group of New York City lawyers bought the old ferry site of Paulus Hook (Jersey City). Steam ferries and railroads brought boom times, leading to the official establishment of Hudson as new county in 1840, the smallest in New Jersey. Following the Civil War, Hudson County became a center of industry, home to giants in the soap, tobacco, light bulb, steel, oil, elevator, and engineering fields. Though claimed by New York City, the Statue of Liberty stands in New Jersey waters, on Hudson County’s shores. Past Lady Liberty and through Ellis Island came millions of immigrants over the next century, swelling the tiny county’s population and packing it’s ever more urbanized landscape. Hudson County became the gateway for generations of new Americans who toiled in the factories, rail lines and on the docks of industrial age America. Those waves of immigrants set the tone for a County that still proudly celebrates it diverse neighborhoods and a local cultural mosaic composed of more than a hundred nationalities. Neighboring Counties:
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The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define
the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local.
And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions,
reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history. Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally." |