Paterson
Paterson names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Paterson a city_and the countyseat of Passaic co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city_and the countyseat of Passaic co., N. J.; on the Passaic river, the Morris canal, and on the Erie, the New York, Susquehanna & Western, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroads; 17 miles N. W. of New York. The city is chiefly noted for its silk industries, on account of which it is called the "Lyons of America." It is built partly on the slopes of ranges of hills which surround it and partly on a broad plain. Business Interests. - Paterson is an important manufacturing center. Its silk mills are the largest in the United States, having an output of over $200,- 000,000 per annum and employing about 30,000 persons. Its other manufactures include aeroplane motors, electrical motors, locomotives, nd other machinery, linen thread, twine, yarns, and shirts. The city has three National banks, one savings institution, and five trust companies. The assessed valuation of the property is $131,000,000 and the net bonded debt about $5,833,000. Public Interests. - The city has an area of 8½ square miles; 115 miles of paved streets and a sewer system covering 120 miles. The streets are lighted by elec tricity and gas. The Police Department has a force of 175 men. The Fire Department is completely motorized. The annual cost of maintaining the city government is about $4,150,000. The streets are well paved and broad. Among the local attractions are the Passaic Falls, the river dropping over a 70-foot precipice at this point. The principal public buildings are the city hall, court house, postoffice and the high school. History. Paterson was founded in 1791 by a society formed by Alexander Hamilton. The society had a capital of $1,000,000 and Hamilton's idea in organizing it and founding the city was to encourage American manufacture and make the United States industrially as well as politically independent of Europe. The city was named in honor of William Paterson, Governor of New Jersey. In 1851 it was incorporated as a city. Pop. (1910) 125,600; (1920) 135,866.
Paterson WILLIAM, an English financier
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM, an English financier; born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1658. He went through England as a peddler, settled for a time at Bristol, subsequently resided in the Bahama Islands. Returning to London he engaged in trade with success, and in 1694 proposed and founded the Bank of England, being one of its first directors. When the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland was concluded in 1707, Paterson, one of its warmest advocates, received an indemnity (of $90,000) for the losses he had sustained. Paterson was a great financial genius, but most of his views (such as his advocacy of free trade) were far in advance of his time. He died in London in 1719.
Paterson ROBERT, popularly known as "Old Mortality
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ROBERT, popularly known as "Old Mortality," ," an English stone cutter, cutter, born near Hawick, in 1712 or 1715, served his apprenticeship as a stone mason to an elder brother near Lochmaben. He married soon after 1740, and, renting a quarry for himself, took to carrying gravestones into Galloway. From about 1758 he neglected to return to his wife and five children, and for upward of 40 years devoted himself to the task of repairing or erecting headstones to Covenanting martyrs. Paterson died in Bankend, England, Jan. 29, 1801, and was buried at Caerlaverock, where a monument was erected to him by the Messrs. Black in 1869.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote in 1921, Paterson was the "Lyons of America," with silk mills turning out over $200,000,000 a year and employing some 30,000 people; that industry collapsed over the following decades and virtually nothing of it survives, though the city itself has grown to roughly 159,000 people and remains one of New Jersey's largest. The "aeroplane motors" mentioned in passing were the more lasting business: Wright Aeronautical built engines in Paterson, among them the Whirlwind that carried Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic in 1927. The Passaic Falls, listed as a "local attraction," are now Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, created in 2011. Two smaller corrections: William Paterson, founder of the Bank of England in 1694, was a Scot rather than "an English financier," and is now remembered chiefly for the ruinous Darien colonial scheme that Collier's leaves out; Robert "Old Mortality" Paterson was likewise Scottish, and Bankend and Caerlaverock lie in Scotland, not England.
Written for this edition, 2026.