New Jersey – A State of Many Firsts

A timeline highlighting some of the State’s history between 1835 and 1922 reveals many “firsts” which had an enduring impact on the state and the nation. Although these milestones were certainly covered by the national press, it was in the New Jersey press they were introduced, then discussed, debated and editorialized upon in great detail.

  • Colt firearms employing the early use of interchangeable parts began production in Paterson (1835)
  • Samuel Morse developed the telegraph at Morristown (1838)
  • The first cranberries were cultivated (1840)
  • The North American Phalanx, first utopian socialist commune, was established in Colts Neck (1843)
  • New Jersey adopted its second state constitution that allowed for the direct election of the governor, established a debt ceiling, and gave veto power to the governor (1844)
  • The State legislature passed an act abolishing slavery but substituted “apprenticeship for life” unless voluntarily freed by owner (1846)
  • New Jersey’s first state hospital, supported by Dorothea Dix, opened in Trenton (1848)
  • New Jersey’s first free public school was established in Bordentown by Clara Barton (1852)
  • Railroad service began to Atlantic City, opening the nation’s resort to tourists (1854)
  • The first baseball game was played at Hoboken (1856)
  • New Jersey Freie Zeitung German-language newspaper began publication in Newark (1858)
  • The first complete dinosaur fossil was found at Haddonfield (1858)
  • New Jersey granted the majority of its electoral votes to Stephen Douglas, who was running against Abraham Lincoln (1860)
  • 88,000 New Jersey men fought in Civil War, while the state became a major part of the Underground Railroad (1861-1865)
  • New Jersey granted its electoral votes to George McClellan, running against Abraham Lincoln; the only free state that rejected Lincoln twice (1864)
  • Rutgers College became New Jersey’s land grant institution (1864)
  • Lucy Stone founded the New Jersey Woman’s Suffrage Association and addressed the New Jersey State Legislature (1867)
  • The first Japanese students came to the U.S. and attended Rutgers College; Kusakabe Taro, a young samurai from the province of Echizen, became the first Japanese to become a member of Phi Beta Kappa and to graduate from an American college (1868)
  • The first college football game was played in New Brunswick between Rutgers and Princeton (1869)
  • The first boardwalk was constructed in Atlantic City by Alexander Boardman (1870)
  • John A. Roebling opened his wire rope business in Trenton and went on to become the premier suspension bridge, aqueduct, and elevator cable builder in the world (1870)
  • Thomas Edison opened the first modern research laboratories in Menlo Park (1876) and developed the incandescent lamp (1879)
  • The first magnetic recording was made by Oberlin Smith at Bridgeton (1878)
  • The first submarine commissioned by the US Navy was launched by John Holland in the Passaic River in Paterson (1880)
  • The Ellis Island immigration station was opened (1882)
  • Peter McGuire of Camden and Matthew Maguire of Jersey City founded the Labor Day parade held in Union Square in New York (1882)
  • Roselle became the first United States town to be lighted by electricity (1883)
  • Grover Cleveland, New Jersey native, was elected U. S. President (1888)
  • The Ceramic Art Company, later Lenox Incorporated, was founded in Trenton (1889)
  • John Philip Sousa and his newly formed band first performed publicly in Plainfield (1892)
  • Mary Philbrook became the first female attorney to pass the bar in New Jersey (1895)
  • Condensed soup was patented by the Joseph Campbell Company at Camden (1897)
  • Hannibal Goodwin invented rollable film for movies at Newark (1898)
  • The Consumers League of New Jersey was founded in East Orange (1900)
  • The Victor Talking Machine Co. was founded in Camden (1901)
  • The S. Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey for violation of Sherman Antitrust Act (1911)
  • New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson was elected U. S. President (1912)
  • 20,000 silk workers went on strike in Paterson attracting national support and attention (1913)
  • Water chlorination developed by Charles Frederick Wallace was implemented at the Boonton Reservoir (1913)
  • The Modern School, an anarchist community devoted to freedom of education, was established in Stelton (1914)
  • German saboteurs blew up a munitions pier on Black Tom Island, Jersey City (1916)
  • Fatal shark attacks at the New Jersey shore whipped up hysteria in the nation’s press (1916)
  • Major polio epidemic struck New Jersey (1916)
  • Frank Hague was elected mayor of Jersey City,–the beginning of the “city boss” era (1917)
  • Alice Paul of Mount Laurel founded the National Woman’s Party (1917)
  • New Jersey College for Women, later Douglass College, opened in New Brunswick (1918)
  • A German U-boat sank six American ships off the New Jersey coast (1918)
  • Major Spanish influenza epidemic struck New Jersey (1918)
  • The first passenger flight in America flew from New York City to Atlantic City (1919)
  • The New Jersey League of Voters was founded in Trenton (1920)
  • Johnson & Johnson Company distributed the first band aids in New Brunswick (1920)
  • The first Miss America Pageant was held in Atlantic City in 1921
  • The Carrier Engineering Company patented the first air conditioning system at Newark (1921)
  • The highly publicized, unsolved Hall-Mills murder took place in Franklin Township (1922)
  • The Deborah Jewish Consumptive Relief Society, later Deborah Hospital, was founded to treat tuberculosis victims free of charge at Burlington County (1922)