History

"Every Jerseyman may well feel proud that he lives in so favored a state, every foot of whose soil was purchased from the aborigines who inhabited the land prior to the time it was settled by the whites, and that no land was taken up except by purchase.

"The province now called Nova Caesaria or New Jersey, was so called in compliment to Sir George Carteret, one of the proprietors and a Jerseyman.

"We are not informed of the precise time when the first English settlements were made in this State, thought it is supposed that the Danes, or Norwegians, who came over with the Dutch colonists, and first commenced a settlement at New York about the year 1618, were the first to commence a settlement at Bergen, in this State.  As early as 1614, an attempt was made to form a settlement at Jersey City, that point being fortified."

Source:  The History of New Jersey by John O. Raum

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