CITIES, AMERICAN. (OKLAHOMA CITY, ORANUE.) 



167 





company, a carriage factory, mattress company, 

 bottling' works, a bakery consuming raw mate- 

 rial to I he amount of $150,000 yearly, and a 

 rhemieal tire-kitidler and excelsior company, as 

 well a> numerous smaller concerns marble and 

 granite works, cooper shops, willow and rattan, 

 fieri ric alarm and lime works. The Board of 

 Trade has a membership of nearly 300. Two 

 daily newspapers are published. 



NORTH MUSKEGON, on the north side of Mus- 

 kegon lake, on a plateau between it and Bear 

 Lake, had a population in 1890 of 1,590, when 

 still a village. In 1891 it was incorporated as a 

 city. Two bridges have been authorized, one by 

 Muskegon and one by the city itself, to cost 

 $12,000 each, which will reduce the distance be- 

 tween the two corporations about one mile, and 

 will accommodate the electric car line of Muske- 

 gon, which is being extended. Water is sup- 

 plied from Bear lake by water works which 

 cwt $32,000, the capacity of the pump being 

 1,500,000 gallons a day. There are 3 miles of 

 water mains and 37 hydrants. The public- 

 school enrollment in 1891 was 359, and a new 

 central school building has been erected at a 

 cost of $12,000. There are 5 shingle and lumber 

 mills here, one of which has an annual out- 

 put of 25,000,000 shingles and 3,000,000 feet of 

 lumber. 



MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, south of the city, is a vil- 

 lage incorporated Jan. 2, 1891, which, with but 

 1,300 inhabitants, contains factories disbursing 

 from $20,000 to $25,000 a month in wages. It 

 has a public-school building, recently completed, 

 which cost $9,000. A newspaper is published, 

 and there are Baptist and Methodist churches. 

 A large refrigerator company is located here, 

 the plant of which covers 10 acres, and employs 

 250 men. A belt line alongside the works con^ 

 nects all railroad and steamship lines centering 

 at Muskegon. Another important industry is 

 an electric-crane company, capitalized at $150,- 

 000, which was organized in March, 1891, and in 

 its second year showed an output of $250,000. 

 Other establishments turn out key-way cutters 

 with key-making attachments, key-seating ma- 

 chines and planers, horse-power fire engines, 

 pianos, washing machines, and woodwork of 

 all kinds ; one company, which makes a specialty 

 of fine interior decoration and finish, employs 

 125 men. 



Oklahoma City, the largest city in Oklahoma 

 Territory, now four years old, claims a popula- 

 tion approximating 10,000. In 1890 it had by 

 the Federal census 4,151. On the streets and 

 suit -walks $20,000 have been expended, $10,000 

 on a fire department, and $20,000 on a system of 

 sanitary sewerage. The city is lighted by gas 

 and electricity, and water works nave been in 

 operation nearly a year, which cost $100,000, the 

 supply being from artesian wells. There are 

 5,000 feet of stone and brick business blocks, 

 including 13 three-story buildings. The city en- 

 joys excellent transportation facilities, being on 

 the main stem of the Atchison, Topeka and 

 Santa Fe Railroad, running north and south, 

 while the Choctaw Railroad furnishes egress 

 east and west. It is also an important trading 

 and manufacturing center, and is surrounded by 

 a rich agricultural region. It possesses the only 

 foundry and the only canning factory in the 



territory, a $75,000 cold-storage and ice plant, a 

 carriage and wagon factory, a large grain ele- 

 vator, roller mills with capacity of 400 barrels of 

 flour and 200 of bolted meal daily, also a custom 

 corn and flour mill, 2 planing mills, several 

 steam and hand brick machines, 2 broom and 3 

 cigar factories. A complete telephone .-y-ii-m 

 connects all parts of the city, and there is free 

 mail delivery. 



Orange, a city of Essex County, N. J. It has 

 a population of about 20,000, and is the Orange 

 proper, around which lie the townships named 

 East, West, and South Orange. It is the only 

 city of the group, the largest in population and 

 the smallest in area. It is very near the center 

 of Essex County, 4 miles northwest of Newark, 

 on an undulating plain on the first ridge of hills 

 that rises above Newark, and at the foot of the 

 second hill of the Watch ung mountain, common- 

 ly but improperly called the First Orange moun- 

 tain. It is within thirty minutes of New York, 

 on the Morris and Essex division of the Delaware, 

 Lackawanna and Western Railroad, is the ter- 

 minus of the Orange branch of the Erie Rail- 

 way, and the projected center of the new cable 

 and rapid-transit elevated road from New York 

 to the brow of the First mountain. The main 

 street is traversed by an electric railroad run- 

 ning from the foot of Eagle Rock, West Orange, 

 to Newark, and the principal crosstown thor- 

 oughfare by an electric road from South Orange 

 to Rosedale Cemetery, connecting with Mont- 

 clair, East Orange, and the cable elevator to the 

 top of the mountain. The first settlements here 

 were made by people who moved up from the 

 town, on the Passaic, not long after it was 

 founded by emigrants from Connecticut, in 1666. 

 At the close of the seventeenth century there 

 were several families of prosperous farmers here ; 

 in 1718 there were enough to form a Presbyte- 

 rian society separate from the mother church ; 

 and in 1806 the township, named for the Prince 

 of Orange, was laid off from Newark. In 1859 

 this was divided into the townships of Orange, 

 and the East, West, and South Oranges. Or- 

 ange, covering a little more than 2 square miles, 

 was incorporated as a city in 1870, under the 

 name of the Town of Orange, which was changed 

 to the City of Orange in 1872. The old road 

 from Newark to the " mountain settlements," 

 upon which are also the centers of both East and 

 West Orange, is now a broad avenue, macadam- 

 ized and shaded by elms and other trees nearly 

 one hundred years old. The business houses 

 are closely gathered together for half a dozen 

 blocks, in the neighborhood of the railroad sta- 

 tion and at the intersection of the Newark and 

 crosstown electric railroads. The city has 5 

 wards, and the government is represented by the 

 mayor and 16 councilmen. The tax rate for 

 1892 was $2.90. The police department, organ- 

 ized in 1869, consists of city marshal, 2 sergeants, 

 3 roundsmen, 1 truant officer, and 21 patrolmen. 

 The paid fire department, organized in 1873 to 

 succeed the Volunteer Fire Company, has about 

 25 men, 2 steam fire-engine companies, 1 hook 

 and ladder company, 2 hose companies, and 

 a fire-telegraph system with 25 boxes. The 

 water works are complete and sufficient for the 

 growth of the population. They are supplied 

 from the west branch of Rahway river, and 



