The town is notable for being the first city in which Mallomars were sold.[2]
History
Early history and civic boundaries
The area that became West Hoboken was originally inhabited by the Munsee-speaking branch of LenapeNative Americans,[3][4][5][6][7] who wandered into the vast woodland area encountered by Henry Hudson during the voyages he conducted from 1609 to 1610 for the Dutch, who later claimed the area (which included the future New York City) and named it New Netherland. The portion of that land that included the future Hudson County was purchased from members of the Hackensack tribe of the Lenni-Lenape in 1658 by New Netherland colony Director-General Peter Stuyvesant,[8][9] and became part of Pavonia, New Netherland.[10] The boundaries of the purchase are described in the deed preserved in the New York State Archives, as well as the medium of exchange: "80 fathoms of wampum, 20 fathoms of cloth, 12 brass kettles, 6 guns, one double brass kettle, 2 blankets, and one half barrel of strong beer."[11]
The relationship between the early Dutch settlers and Native Americans was marked by frequent armed conflict over land claims. In 1660, Peter Stuyvesant ordered the building of a fortified village called Bergen to protect the area. It was the first permanent European settlement in New Jersey, located in what is now the Journal Square area of Jersey City near Academy Street.[9][12] In 1664, the British captured New Netherland from the Dutch, at which point the boundaries of Bergen Township encompassed what is now known as Hudson County. North of this was the unpopulated Bergen Woods, which would later be claimed by settlers, after whom a number of Union City streets today are named,[9] including Sip Street,[13][14][15] Tournade Lane and Kerrigan Avenue,[16] which is named after J. Kerrigan, the owner of Kerrigan Farm, who donated the land for Saint Michael's Monastery.[16][17]
The area that became West Hoboken, however, was sparsely populated until the early 19th century. The British granted Bergen a new town charter in 1668. In 1682 they created Bergen County, which was named to honor their Dutch predecessors. That county comprised all of present-day Hudson, Bergen and Passaic counties. Sparsely inhabited during the 17th and 18th centuries, the southeast section of Bergen County had grown by the early 19th century to the point where it was deemed necessary to designate it a separate county. The New Jersey legislature created Hudson County in 1840, and in 1843, it was divided into two townships: Old Bergen Township (which eventually became Jersey City) and North Bergen Township, which was gradually separated into Hudson County's municipalities of Hoboken (1849), Weehawken and Guttenberg (1859), and Union City Township in 1861,[9][10] though it was colloquially known as Union Hill.[18] West Hoboken was incorporated as a township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 28, 1861, from portions of North Bergen Township. The township was reincorporated on April 6, 1871, and again on March 27, 1874. Portions of the township were ceded to Weehawken in 1879.[10] On June 28, 1884, West Hoboken was reincorporated as a town, based on an ordinance passed nine days earlier. The town was reincorporated on April 24, 1888, based on the results of a referendum passed 12 days earlier.[10]: 148 Union City was incorporated on June 1, 1925, by merging the two towns of West Hoboken and Union Hill.[3][10]
Photographs of West Hoboken
Brownstone houses, now at New York Avenue between Monastery Place and 21st Street
^Sturtevant, William C.; Trigger, Bruce G (January 1, 1978). Delaware languages: Handbook of North American Indians Vol. 15: Northeast. p. 215. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1978. ISBN0-16-004575-4.
^Day, Gordon M. (1953). "The Indian as an Ecological Factor in the Northeastern Forests". Ecology. 34 (2): 329–346. doi:10.2307/1930900. New England and New York areas 1580–1800. Notes that the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) tribe in New Jersey and the Massachuset tribe in Massachusetts used fire in ecosystems.
^Russell, Emily W. B. (1983). "Indian Set Fires in the Forests of the Northeastern United States". Ecology. 64 (1): 78–88. doi:10.2307/1937331. Author found no strong evidence that Indians purposely burned large areas, but they did burn small areas near their habitation sites. Noted that the Lenna Lenape Tribe used fire.
^A Brief Description of New York, Formerly Called New Netherlands with the Places Thereunto Adjoining, Likewise a Brief Relation of the Customs of the Indians There. New York, NY: William Gowans. 1670. Reprinted in 1937 by the Facsimile Text Society, Columbia University Press, New York. Notes that the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) tribe in New Jersey used fire in ecosystems.
^Robinson, Walter F. (1964). New Jersey Tercentenary: 1664-1964. Hudson County Tercentenary Committee for this information, p. 190
^ abcdFernandez, Lucio; Karabin, Gerard (2010). Union City in Pictures. Book Press NY. pp. 11–13. ISBN978-0982543344.
^Bergen: Town and Township Nov 1660-Sept 22, 1668, 1957 Genealogical Society of New Jersey
^Harvey, Cornelius Burnham (1900). Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company. p. 20
^Winfield, Charles H (1874). History of the County of Hudson, New Jersey, Kennard & Hay Stationery. p. 525
^ abBusiness Directory Of North Hudson, North Hudson Hospital Association, Town of Union, N.J. 1905. p. 331
^Union City 2000 Calendar, 2000, culled from History of West Hoboken and Union Hill by Ella-Mary Ryman, 1965 and The Historical Background of Union City by Daniel A. Primont, William G. Fiedler and Fred Zuccaro, 1964
^Van Winkle, Daniel (1924). History of the Municipalities of Hudson County, NJ 1630-1923, Lewis Historical Publishing Company Inc., New York & Chicago. pp. 463-464
^Cattuna, Emily. "Remembering a shopping mecca". The Jersey Journal. August 25, 2009. Accessed June 18, 2013. "North Hudson was comprised of Union Hill and West Hoboken until 1925, when it was divided into Union City, Guttenberg, Weehawken and North Bergen. The southern 'Hub,' where North Hudson met Jersey City, was the Transfer Station at Paterson Plank Road."
^Dennis J. Starr, "Botto House". In The Italian American Experience: An Encyclopedia, ed. Salvatore J. LaGumina, et al. (New York: Garland Pub., 2000), p. 70.
^ abHalasz, Piri (January 21, 1973). "Art: Maritime Theme at Exhibitions; Appeal of Nostalgia History and Humor Portraits of Vessels". The New York Times. "James Butterworth (1817–1894), whose work is on view in Trenton, was an Englishman born on the Isle of Wight. By the time he emigrated and settled in West Hoboken (now Union City), America was in the heyday of its gallant clipper ships."
^Severo, Richard (January 21, 1992). "Pietro di Donato Is Dead at 80; Wrote of Immigrants' Experience". The New York Times. "Mr. di Donato was born on April 3, 1911, in West Hoboken, N.J. His family had immigrated to the United States from Vasto, in the Abruzzi region of Italy."
^Mavromatis, Kelly. "Felix the Cat – Silent Star of April 1999". Silent Star of the Month. Accessed June 18, 2013. "Felix first appeared in 1919, and was the creation of Otto Messmer. Messmer was born in West Hoboken (now known as Union City) New Jersey on August 16, 1892."
^RANNEY, WILLIAM TYLEE, The Handbook of Texas. Accessed October 23, 2015. "by 1853 he and his family had settled in West Hoboken, New Jersey, where a number of other artists lived. There he built a large studio to accommodate the many artifacts-buckskin costumes, guns, riding gear-that he had brought back from the West."
^"Artist and Long-time UA Professor Emeritus Alvin Sella Dies", University of Alabama, April 12, 2013. Accessed February 29, 2020. "Born in West Hoboken, New Jersey, Sella studied art at the Yale School of Fine Arts, Art Students League of New York, Columbia University School of Arts, Syracuse University College of Fine Arts, University of New Mexico department of art and, independently, in Mexico."
