to
Update
is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, south of Jersey City. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city had a total population of 61,842. The Census Bureau's 2006 population estimate for Bayonne is 57,886, a decrease of 6.4% from 2000.
According to tradition, the city derives its name from the city of Bayonne in France. It is said that French Huguenots settled there some time before New Amsterdam was founded. French-speaking Walloons were a large percentage of the population of New Netherland during the mid-seventeenth century and may have given the name. However, there are no historical records to prove this. A 1904 history suggests that the area's developers named it
because it is on the shores of two bays, Newark and New York, hence Bay-on, or "on the Bays". Bayonne is a diverse city, with large communities of Italian, Irish and Polish Americans.
Bayonne was originally formed as a township on April 1, 1861, from portions of Bergen Township. Bayonne was reincorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 10, 1869, replacing Bayonne Township, subject to the results of a referendum held nine days later.
Bayonne was first home to the Lenni Lenape Native Americans before the arrival of Henry Hudson. Henry Hudson first sailed through the Kill Van Kull into Newark Bay in 1609, where it is said he dropped anchor at Birds' Point, now Constable Hook. Hudson claimed the area for the Netherlands. Then in 1646, Dutch West India Company gave John Jacobson Roy, chief gunner or konstapel at Fort Amsterdam, a grant of land later known as Constable Hook. Further expansion of the territory came in 1654 when Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant gave out numerous land grants in the upper part of the peninsula (modern-day 30th street) which, was named Pamrapo. In 1661, the Bergen Township was formed by the Dutch which, stretched southward to Bergen Point. The area then came under British rule in 1664 after they defeated the Dutch for the area. In 1714, the Township of Bergen became one of three townships in the new County of Bergen. In 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, British and patriot forces clashed at Fort Delancy in what is now Bayonne.
In 1836, the Morris Canal which ran from Phillipsburg to Newark during the time, was extended to Bergen Neck to New York Bay. On March 15, 1861 the New Jersey Legislature approved unification of Bergen Point, Centerville, Salterville, and Constable Hook into the Township of Bayonne. The City of Bayonne was approved by the New Jersey Legislature in 1869. Industrial growth came to Constable Hook in 1872 when Standard Oil bought land there. Later, in 1875 Prentice Oil Company also established at Constable Hook. It would later be sold to a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad called Empire Transportation Company, a competitor of Standard Oil. Even more expansion came to Bayonne when Tide Water Oil Company, previously located in Pennsylvania, relocated.