'HISTORY of the city: Paterson was inhabited by the Algonquian-speaking Native American Acquackanonk tribe of the Lenape, also known as the Delaware Indians. The land was known as the Lenapehoking. The Dutch claimed the land as New Netherlands, followed by the British as the Province of New Jersey. Alexander Hamilton (1755/57–1804), founded Paterson in 1791 when he was the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, with the help of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures known as the S.U.M. This group was to develop businesses using the energy from the Great Falls of the Passaic River located in Paterson. The 77-foot high Great Falls and water system of raceways harnessed to the falls' provided power to the mills.
 |
| Lambert Castle |
Dozens of mill buildings and other textile manufacturing structures including the firearms, silk, and railroad locomotive manufacturing industries. Later in the late 19th century silk industry became dominant and Paterson was dubbed Silk City.
Hamilton worked to establish to secure economic independence from British manufacturers. Paterson became the cradle of the industrial revolution in America. Paterson was named for William Paterson, statesman, signer of the Constitution and Governor of New Jersey (1790–93), who signed the 1792 charter that established the Town of Paterson.
 |
| Alexander Hamilton (1905-06), by Franklin Simmons |
Architect, engineer, and city planner Pierre Charles L'Enfant (1754–1825), who developed the original plans for Washington, D.C., planned to harness the power of the Great Falls through a channel in the rock and an aqueduct. Later he was replaced by Peter Colt using a reservoir system to get the water flowing to factories in 1794. Colt's system had problems and L'Enfant's original plan were reworked and used after 1846 to finish the project.
Paterson was originally part of Essex County and was formed as a township on April 11, 1831 from the Acquackanonk Township already established. It would become part of the the new County of Passaic on February 7, 1837. It a city on April 14, 1851 and reincorporated on March 14, 1861.
Information from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paterson,_New_Jersey
For genealogy research for those searching for their families from Paterson, New Jersey there is a great stumbling block in that almost all documents and public records were lost in a city fire. On February 9, 1902, an overheated stove in a trolley shed caught fire in Paterson, New Jersey. The fire, fueled by 60-mile-an-hour winds, destroyed 459 buildings, more than a quarter of the city's structures, and 26 city blocks. Although there were only two deaths connected with the fire, it destroyed more than a quarter of the city's structures and 26 city blocks.1 The estimated losses of building owners and tradesmen were $2,689,550, and there was a large influx of people without dwellings and offices.0 The first hour of the fire was a frigid Saturday night, with temperatures dropping to 20 degrees and 50mph winds whipped wildly, around new cold concrete construction, and through old wood-framed buildings that still lined the city's streets.
In my search, I've had to use DNA to find connections to the Morristown, North Jersey area to connect my tree. In the 1800s many of my family lived in Paterson, NJ. Also cemeteries and graves were moved creating another stumbling block. ~Jan
Some Links
http://www.patersonhistory.com/ https://www.patersonnj.gov/ https://www.britannica.com/place/Paterson-New-Jersey https://www.journeythroughjersey.com/sites/paterson-museum/ Pride In Paterson NJ video series by Freddy Cardona https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw_QrfDTDMY&list=PLhMoTfeELItvi5aYqSEMZpYjr-rUryBFa New Jersey Internet Magazine http://www.rt23.com/
