Bloomfield

Bloomfield, a town of Essex county, New Jersey, U.S.A., about 12 m. W. of New York, and directly adjoining the city of Newark on the N. Pop. (1900) 9668, of whom 2267 were foreign-born; (1905, state census) 11,668; (1910), 15,070. Area, 5.42 sq. m. Bloomfield is served by the Erie, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railways, and by several electric lines connecting with Newark, Montclair, Orange, East Orange and other neighbouring places. It is a residential suburb of Newark and New York, is the seat of a German theological school (Presbyterian, 1869) and has the Jarvie Memorial library (1902). There is a Central Green, and in 1908 land was acquired for another park. Among the town’s manufactures are silk and woollen goods, paper, electric elevators, electric lamps, rubber goods, safety pins, hats, cream separators, brushes and novelties. The value of the town’s factory products increased from $3,370,924 in 1900 to $4,645,483 in 1905, or 37.8%. First settled about 1670-1675 by the Dutch and by New Englanders from the Newark colony, Bloomfield was long a part of Newark, the principal settlement at first being known as Wardsesson. In 1796 it was named Bloomfield in honour of General Joseph Bloomfield (1753-1823), who served (1775-1778) in the War of American Independence, reaching the rank of major, was governor of New Jersey in 1801-1802 and 1803-1812, brigadier-general in the United States army during the War of 1812, and a Democratic representative in Congress from 1817 to 1821. The township of Bloomfield was incorporated in 1812. From it were subsequently set off Belleville (1839), Montclair (1868) and Glen Ridge (1895).