Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/862

 NEW JERSEY

790

NEW JERSEY

Agatha's at Easby, near Hicliiiumd, Yorkshire (1152) ; Npwbo, near Barrowhy, Linoohishire (1 H)S); Sulby, Northamptonshire (originally established at Wcl- ford (1155).

DroDALE. ^fonaslicon Atiolicanum. VI; CoUi'ctanea Anglo- Pnrmonst. in Redmen. Register, cd. Gasquet (Royal Historical Society. 3rd scries. VI. X. XII); Geudens. .1 Sketch of the Pre- monstnUrn.^iaii Order and its houses in Great Britain ami Ireland (London, I87S); Hugo, Annales Pra-monslratenscs (Nancy, 1734).

F. M. Geudens.

New Jersey, one of the orijiinal thirteen states of the Aiiieriraii I'nion. It ratifii'd the Kederal Consti- tution on IS DiM-cnibiT. 17S7. beinj; preceded only by Delaware and I'ennsylvania. Theeapilal of the state b Trenton. The extreme length of New .I<Tsey from north to south is lliO miles, its extreme breadth 70 miles, and its gross area 7S15 square miles. It is situ- ated between :iS° 55' 39" and 41° 21' 19" N. lat., and between 73° 53' 51" and 75° 33' 3" W. long. It is bounded on the north by New York State, on the east by the Hudson Hiver and the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Delaware Bay, and on the west by the Dela- ware Kiver. In 1910 the population was 2, .537, 167 (1,883,669 in 1900), the state being thus, notwith- standing its large mountainous and forest areas, more densely populated than the most fertile of the prairie states or the great manufacturing States of New York or I'ennsylvania. New .Jersey has, in proportion to its area, more miles of railway than any other state, the majority of the eastern trunk lines traversing it. Its farms yield a larger income in proportion to the area cultivated than the richest states of the Mississippi valley. In manufactures it r.anks sixth in the Union.

Phvsic.\i> Char.\ctehistics. — Much of the north- em half of New .Jersey is mountainous, and much of its southern half is covered with forest. The state divides itself naturally into four belts, differing in age, in the nature of the underlying rocks, and in topog- raphy. The Appalachian Ijelt, made up of the Kitta- tinny range and valley, forms the north-western part of the state. This ridge is due to til ted-up layers of hard rock, which have been able to resist the agents of w;i.ste, while the softer rocks were being slowly worn away to form the Kittatinny valley. The Kittatinny Mountains constitute the highest land in the state, and are clothed with forests; the valley, which is one of the most fertile ]iarts of the state, isdevoted to gen- eral farming and grazing. There are no large cities, and but little inanufacturing, in this section. The Highland belt is the oldest part of the state, and is a portion of the very ancient mountain system of which the Blue Ridge Mountains are a worn-down remnant. The Highlands (generally less than 1.500 feet high) are a region of lakes, forests, and picturesque v.alleys, but are not a productive farming section. Here, in an- cient crj-stalUne rocks, are found valuable beds of iron and of zinc ore, but there are no large cities and no ex- tensive manufacturing. The Piedmont belt is a roll- ing plain from which rise abrupt ridges of hard trap- rock. The Palisades along the Hudson and the Orange or Watchung Mountains are the most promi- nent of these ridges. 'While the rocks of the Piedmont plain are mostly sandstone and shale, the trap-rocks are ancient lava sheets. This, the belt of dense popu- lation, many cities, great manufacturing activity, and generally productive soil, is by far the most wealthy part of the state. The nortliem part of New Jersey was covered by the ice sheet of the glacial period. As a result, there are many swamps, lakes, and water- falls, a glacial soil with many boulders, and the ter- minal moraine formed by low rounded hills. These hills are composed of till, gravel, boulders, etc., brought together by the advancing ice sheet and piled up along its front. The coastal plain is the youngest, flattest, and largest of the four natural divisions of the state, of which it forms more than one half. It is composed of layer ujjon layer of sand, clay, gravel, and

marl f^ediments. that were, in past ages, .slowly de- positeil in the ncciii w.ilers along the coast, and after- wards into .-I Inw, sMiidy plain. The marl belt and a few other pmliims ari' iilone fertile. More than half of the coast:d plain is cdvenMl with pine forests and is thinly peopled. Outside of the larger cities, the r:iis- ing of fruit ;ind vegetables for the city markets and the manufaclure of glass are the chief industries. The sea-eoasi is fringed with sununer resorts.

Civil. llisTDitv. — The pn'cis<' d;ite of the first settle- ment in New Jersey is not known, though it is believed that the Danes or Norwegians, who cro.ssed I he .\tlan- tic with the Dutch colonist.s, began a settlement at Bergen about 1624. Ten years previously an attempt had been made to form a settlement at Jersey City. In 1623 the Dutch West India Com- pany sent out a ship underthe com- mand of Captain Cornelius Jacobse Mey. Entering Delaware Bay, he gave his name to its northern cape, and then, sailing up the rivertoCJIouccster, built Vini Nas- sau, which may be Skal of New Jbr.sey considereil the first permanent settlement of the state. In 1632 Charles I granted to Sir Edmund Plowden a vast tract of land enihr;icing New Jersey, Pennsyl- vania, Delaware, and Maryland, although he had previously granted Maryland to Lord Baltimore. In 1634 Plowden made a grant of ten thousand acres to Sir Thomas Danby on condition that he would settle one hundred planters on it, and would not permit "any to live thereon not believing or professing the three Christian creeds commonly called the Apos- tolical, Athanasian, and Nicene". In 1642 Plowden sailed up the Delaware River, which he named "The Charles", and founded at Salem City a settlement of seventy persons. The efforts of Thomas and George Plowden to assert their claims to the lands granted to their grandfather proved futile, the possessions having fallen into other hands after the latter had ri'tired to Virginia during the Commonwealth. In lOOti, jjrior to the grant of Charles I to Plowden, King James had granted a new patent for Virginia (ignoring that of Sir Walter Raleigh, dated 1584), in which was included the territory now known as the New England States, New Y'ork, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The possession of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and ad- jacent lands was subsequently claimed by the Dutch and Swedes. The former built Fort Nassau on the Delaware near Gloucester. Disputes as to the right- ful possession of this territory continued until 12 March, 1664, when Charles 11 with royal disregard for previous patents, grants, and cliarters, deeded to his brother James, Duke of York, a vast tract embracing much of New England, New York, and all of what is now New Jersey. This was accompanied by active preparations to drive the Dutch from America, as their possession of New Jersey, if acquiesced in, would practically separate the New England Colonies from Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas. In the sum- mer of 1664 armed vessels appeared in New York har- bour, and after negotiations the Dutch surrendered.

In the meantime the Duke of York transferred to two favourites, Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Car- teret, practically what is now the State of New Jersey by the following description : " All that tract of land adjacent to New England and l.vang and being to the westward of Long Island, himnded on the east part by the main sea and part by the Hudson River, and hath