Timeline

abt 1524    Giovanni de Verrazano, an Italian working for the French monarchy, anchors off Sandy Hook. He and his crew are the first Europeans to see New Jersey

1609          Henry Hudson, an Englishman employed by the Dutch, sails up the New Jersey coast, past Sandy Hook, into Newark Bay, through the Narrows, and into New York Bay. Robert Juet, Hudson's first mate, is the first European to record exploration of New Jersey. (See http://www.ianchadwick.com/hudson/hudson_03.htm for a good description of this voyage -- Hudson's third)

1617          Dutch trading post established at Communipaw (in present-day Jersey City). Others may have existed at Arresick and Hobokan Hackingh

1643          North America's first brewery established at Castle Point (in present-day Hoboken) by Dutchman Van Putten 

1660          Bergen (in present-day Jersey City) becomes New Jersey's first permanent European settlement 

1660          Dutch Reformed Church of Bergen founded in present-day Jersey City

1662          New Haven and Connecticut colonies are united, prompting strict Puritans in Milford, Branford, and Guilford, CT to seek a home in which they may practice their stricter and more intolerant form of Protestantism

1664          English take control of New Jersey, then part of the Dutch New Netherland colony

1664 (Aug) Governor Philip Carteret arrives at Elizabeth Town, so named for the Lady Elizabeth, the wife of Sir George Carteret, Philip's fourth cousin and proprietor of East Jersey

1665          New Jersey Governor Philip Carteret offers the Newark area to the former New Haven colonists, headed by Robert Treat and Rev. Abraham Pierson (pastor of the Branford church)

1666          In March, Captain Robert Treat and John Gregory scout out the area that is now Newark in search of a settlement for the Puritans from the former New Haven colony

1676          New Jersey divided into East Jersey and West Jersey

1683          East Jersey divided into four counties: Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, and Monmouth

1690s        West Jersey divided into Burlington, Cape May, Glouscester, and Salem

1715          First permanent European settlement at Morristown, then New Hanover, by migrants from New York and Connecticut (source: Wikipedia)

1738          New Jersey becomes completely independent of New York

1739          Morris County created on March 15

1774          Jacob Ford mansion built

1777          Continental Army arrives in Morristown after the Battle of Trenton

1779-80    Washington headquartered at Ford mansion, with 10,000 soldiers at Jockey Hollow for the most severe winter of the century

1787          New Jersey ratified Constitution, becomes the third state in the union

1794          First newspaper in Morris County established in Chatham, The New Jersey Journal

1822          Newark to Morristown Turnpike built with stops in Bottle Hill (Madison)

1831          First trip completed on 102-mile long Morris Canal

1838          Samuel F.B. Morse and Alfred Vail demonstrate the first telegraph at Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown

1863          Thomas Nast of Morristown illustrated Clement Moore's "T'was the Night Before Christmas," creating the current image of Santa Claus

1890          Millionaires begin building large mansions in Morris County, primarily as summer homes

1911          Craftsman Farms built by furniture designer, Gustav Stickley, in Parsippany

1929          Stock market crash, ending the Gilded Age in Morristown

1933          Morristown National Historical Park created, the first in the U.S.

1955          Morris County Park Commission created