Henry Meigs Jr. (May 7, 1809 – June 7, 1887) was the Mayor of Bayonne, New Jersey, from 1869 to 1879. He was president of the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

Biography

Meigs was born May 7, 1809, in New York City, the son of Henry Meigs,

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from New York. After the death of his first wife, Meigs married widow and poet Mary Noel (née Bleecker) McDonald on November 7, 1848. They moved to Bayonne in the 1860s and had a mansion built on

Newark Bay Newark Bay is a tidal bay at the confluence of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers in northeastern New Jersey. It is home to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the largest container shipping facility in Port of New York and New Jerse ...

. On May 16, 1857, an act of the

New Jersey Legislature The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and ...

was approved that called for commissioners to be appointed to lay out streets and avenues for the future city of Bayonne. Meigs was made one of the commissioners in 1868. When Bayonne was incorporated as a city in 1869, Meigs, who was nominated by the citizens' ticket, was elected its first mayor to serve a two-year term on April 13 of that year. Meigs would be re-elected five consecutive times. In his later

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

s, he ran as a Republican. In his last election in 1877, Meigs defeated former councilman Jasper A. Cadmus. During his terms as mayor, the first schools were built, the first policemen were hired, the first

fire company A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and ...

was organized, the first city hall was built and

gas light ''Gas Light'' is a 1938 thriller play, set in 1880s London, written by the British novelist and playwright Patrick Hamilton. Hamilton's play is a dark tale of a marriage based on deceit and trickery, and a husband committed to driving his w ...

s were installed on some streets. On June 1, 1877,

Standard Oil Company Standard Oil Company was a corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founded in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller. The ...

opened its first

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on Constable Hook.Royden Page Whitcomb, ''First History of Bayonne, New Jersey'', Bayonne: R.P. Whitcomb, 1904 During his last term in 1877, Meigs was elected president of the

in New York City for a one-year term. Meigs was succeeded by Stephen K. Lane. Meigs died, at age 78, at home on June 7, 1887. His funeral was held in Trinity Episcopal Church in

Bergen Point Bergen Point is a point of land that lends its name to the adjacent neighborhood in Bayonne in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The point is located on the north side of Kill van Kull at Newark Bay. It is the section of the cit ...

. He was buried in St. Peter's Episcopal churchyard in

Perth Amboy, New Jersey Perth Amboy is a city (New Jersey), city in northeastern Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, within the New York metropolitan area, New York Metro Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the city' ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meigs, Henry, Jr. Meigs, Jr., Henry 1809 births 1887 deaths 19th-century mayors of places in New Jersey New Jersey Republicans Presidents of the New York Stock Exchange Meigs family